
73 
377 
py 2 




AN INVESTIGATION 



OF 




TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 



CONDUCTED FOR THE 



International Harvester Company 

of America 



BY 



HENRY BRUERE 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER. COMPANY OF AMERICA 

CHICAGO. ILLINOIS. 

1904. 



AN INVESTIGATION 



OF 



TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 



CONDUCTED FOE THE 



International Harvester Company 

of America 



BY 



HENRY BRUERE 



S^ 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY OF AMERICA 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
1904. 



A 



^ ^^ 



PREFACE 

I wish to acknowledge my, indebtedness to the authorities of the 
several institutions, described in the following reports, for their courteous 
co-operation in providing me with information concerning their work. 

With the exception of statements taken from the catalogs and reports 
published by the schools, all the facts upon which these reports are based 
were gathered from visits of one or more days, to the schools and insti- 
tutions themselves. The article on Factory Education, found in the 
appendix, is reprinted through the courtesy of the Editor of The 
Commons. 



HENRY BRUERE. 



Chicago, July, 1904. 



Author 



2d copy r)?cepted 
Order Div. 

25 H '05 



CONTENTS. 

PART I. 

SOUTHERN INDUSTRIAL TRADE SCHOOLS. 

Page. 

Letter to Mr. John G. Wood - - - - - - 4 

Introduction -------- 5 

Report on Berea College, Berea, Ky. ----- 7 

Report on Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. _ . - 9 

Report on Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Ga. - - - - 12 

Report on Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. - - - 12 

Report on Home Industrial School, Asheville, N. C. - - 19 

Report on Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va. - - - 20 



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Chicago, 111., July 8, 1904. 

Mr, John G. Wood, General Superintendent, McCormick Works, Inter- 
national Harvester Co. 

Dear Sir: — I hand you herewith reports upon the educational work 
conducted at the several Southern Institutions, which I visited during 
my recent investigation of Industrial Schools. 

These reports cover the work of Berea College, in Kentucky, sev- 
eral institutions in Atlanta, Ga., Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the Ashe- 
ville Home School, in Asheville, N. C, and the Hampton Institute, in 
Hampton, Va. 

These schools group themselves naturally in so far as they have 
to do, primarily, with the education of backward people, either white 
mountaineers, Indians, or the southern Negro. It will be seen that the 
purpose of these institutions is to develop from the ranks of unskilled 
workers, artisans and teachers who shall be of service in raising the 
tone and economic efficiency of the several communities from which 
they are drawn. 

The second group of institutions has to do with developing special 
skill and peculiar efficiency in workmen who live in communities indus- 
trially more advanced. This group comprises institutions located north 
of Mason and Dixon's line. 

No attempt has been made in these reports to discuss in any way 
thoroughly the economic conditions which have given rise to the founda- 
tion of the schools. On the other hand, it has been assumed that they 
were meeting actual conditions and an effort has been made, merely, 
to describe their activities as fully as possible. 

It is hoped that by reviewing the work of these institutions the wis- 
dom of developing the industrial educational side of our "Institute" 
will make itself clearly felt. Respectfully submitted, 

HENRY BRUERE. 
901 West Twenty-second Street. 



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INTRODUCTION. 

Industrial education in the South is devised to meet a two-fold need, 
one primarily social, and the other individual. In the first place, the 
South needs artisans and skilled workers, who are ready to live under 
Southern conditions, and will accept less wages than the workmen 
brought from the North. Burdened with a slowly developing race for- 
eign to them, the Whites of the South are eager to find some solution 
of the many problems arising from the existence of a large number of 
Blacks amongst them, who cannot be raised by a process of assimila- 
tion, that great principle of development upon which, in the face of 
the constant wave of immigration of uneducated and largely unskilled peo- 
ple from the lower strata of European civilization, the maintenance of 
American methods of life and thought are dependent. To find the prin- 
ciple of self-development ior the Negro is the aim of the leaders of 
the Black race, and its discovery is the growing concern of those 
Southern Whites who do not believe that the welfare of the South 
hangs upon keeping the Blacks in a condition of dependent inferiority. 

The old idea of educators was that illiteracy and ignorance of any 
forrn of culture was the largest difference between the people who had 
attained economic proficiency under slavery and the representative white 
men who had taught them habits of industry. In an agricultural country 
such as the South, mere application and steady work develops sufficient 
skill for the raising of successful harvests, and where labor is as abundant 
as it is in the South, no special need exists for the training of agricul- 
tural laborers. If the Negro could be taught to read and write, and 
the elements of Christianity, it was thought, he would find opened to 
him the opportunity for a fuller development of whatever powers he 
might possess, and on the other hand, in a state of freedom, he was 
less likely, educated, to prove a danger and menace to Southern civiliza- 
tion. 

Education had become a fetish which, especially in the North, was 
supposed to be the great panacea for social difficulties. What kind of 
education was not the question. EDUCATION was enough — to read 
and write, to know this or that truth or half-truth ; while to necessity 
and competition was relegated the task of training men for economic 
service. The humanitarian and public-spirited Northern Whites regarded 
education as the great need of the ex-slaves and their children, and 
made generous sacrifices to provide them with schools and colleges. 

In the second place, the Negro looked upon education as the barrier 
between him and his white neighbor. He saw that the educated man 
was not likely to work, or if he worked he received special emoluments 
and distinction as a member of the professional or mercantile classes. 
If the Negro were ambitious, and not resigned to a servile condition by 
long years of comfortable slavery, he sought freedom from drudgery 
or entrance into the professional ranks by means of acquiring the magic 
power of reading and writing. The result was that schools that had 
been devised for a race of men, and a condition of civilization, in which 
every child was to be given an equal chance for attaining the highest 
social or economic positions in the community, were established for the 
Negro. The Negro was to be given "an equal chance" to make his way, 
and so, wherever the South acquiesced, or money could be provided, 
schools were opened. This education failed to meet the expectations of 
its devotees. There are still a few persons in the South, the greater 
part of whom are Negroes, who believe in the efficacy of literacy as an 
instrument of civilization. But where faith in_ education remains, it 
is in education of a new order, in educative training to a definite end 
rather than in an educative process which seeks, merely, to awaken intel- 

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hgent interest in a comparatively wide range of information. (That 
IS, rather than in a mere educative process which informs but does not 
develop aptitudes nor awaken them.) 

Almost accidentally, in the effort to make Negroes valuable members 
of the body politic, the educators of the South have discovered a new 
principle of education, from which a reformation of the general Northern 
idea of the purpose and ideal of our educational system is likely to fol- 
low. It is a singular fact that while we zealously devote our energies 
and lives to economic practices, our education has been of a nature 
which primarily aims to relieve a man of work as such; that is, which 
in its origin assumed that educated men would find in their knowledge 
a full occupation of their powers, that men who were learned would 
use their knowledge as a means of livelihood, or because of the posses- 
sion of an education would be suffered to exist as economic parasites. 

Before the Renaissance, education set men apart from the common 
rnass and, to the common man, the life of the learned was the kind of 
life for a man to seek. On the awakening of a democratic spirit which 
reached down to the middle class, the educated man, half coerced, half 
from motives of philanthropy, devised means of letting the vulgar into 
their precincts, as far as the vulgar could afford to come. With the 
increase of numbers within the ranks of the educated, there naturally 
resulted a compromise with the common necessity for labor. Society 
could no longer afford to allow every educated, or partly educated man, 
to spend his days in the pursuit and delight of knowledge. Learning 
and labor were made to co-exist. This was a condescension on the part 
of learning, but a necessity for the sake oi living. 

Mankind has never thoroughly awakened from the half-illusion that 
education means happiness. Where we are most civilized, there every 
child is made to acquire at least a modicum of learning which, until 
recently, was merely book-learning. We take our education and turn 
to toil, usually as an escape from the stupid routine of the common 
school. 

The Negroes repeated the error of the Whites, but they are recov- 
ering themselves from their mistake. They are learning that mere edu- 
cation, in itself, does not furnish a man with a living wage, and that to 
secure a living wage a man must render indispensable service to the 
community in which he lives. While he is at school he must be taught 
to do those things for which the community is willing to give him 
wages in return. For the Negro in the South it is necessary that he 
learn how to use his hands in a skillful fashion, because the white 
South does not wish the service of the Negro in the learned professions 
nor, to any great extent, in a clerical capacity. These facts bear upon 
the lives of the black men in an important way because it is to the 
white employer or landlord that the Negro must look for an opportunity 
to exercise his skill. The South wishes to employ the Negro as a me- 
chanic or farmer, and if he can render skilled service in positions of 
this character it will reward him adequately. The Negro has learned 
that he cannot foist himself upon the older race, simply because he can 
read or write as well as his white neighbor, but that he must be pre- 
pared to yield the community such service as it demands of him. In 
order that he may do this successfully schools have been established for 
his industrial training, and the results which they have produced in 
raising the tone of the Negroes whom they have trained, and in equip- 
ping them for useful careers as artisans and substantial citizens, have 
won for them, both the confidence of the Black race and the respect 
and support of the Whites. 

The representative schools of this type are the Tuskegee Institute, 
in Alabama, and the Hampton Institute, in Virginia. The importance 
of their work will readily be understood from reading the description 
of their activities in the following pages. 



PART I. 
BEREA COLLEGE. 

Berea, Ky. 

There is, at present, wide-spread interest in a law, passed by the 
Kentucky Legislature at its last session, prohibiting the co-education 
of the colored and white races by any institution, public or private, hav- 
ing its charter from the State. This law will affect an important edu- 
cational institution situated in the western margin of the Kentucky moun- 
tain region notorious for family feuds and moonshine distilleries. In- 
deed, it is believed that the law was aimed directly at this institution. 
At any rate, it is Berea College, which will carry the act before the 
Supreme Court on the grounds of unconstitutionality. 

Berea College was founded before the war, for the support of union- 
ism in the South, and for the promotion of the cause of free speech. 
Cassius Clay, a distinguished journalist of ante-bellum times, discovered 
in the mountain people, who were landholders without being owners of 
slaves, a possible outpost of the anti-slavery movement. The founders 
of the college met with vehement hostility on the part of these mountain 
people who, although unionists were anti-Negro, for the doors of this 
institution were immediately opened to the black folk. 

But it is not as an institution for the education of Negroes that 
Berea College is significant. Not more than lo per cent of its i,ooo 
students are Negroes, and most of these come from some distance. Its 
important work lies among the mountain folk themselves, for whom it is 
the outpost of civilization. 

These mountain folk spread over the Appalachian Plateau in eastern 
Kentucky, Tennessee, western Virginia and North Carolina in the west- 
ward movement of population occurring after the Revolutionary War. 
By mere accident they came into a country which was without the main 
channel of migration, a region unconnected by highway or water-course 
with the western lowlands. Isolated here these people have remained 
in the stage of development to which their great-grandfathers had at- 
tained; they practice the household arts of weaving, dyeing and spin- 
ning; they use open flambeaux for lamps; they do not read or write; 
they live in log cabins of their own making, and dig a precarious liveli- 
hood from the exhausted hillsides. 

The State has left them to their own devices. No compulsory edu- 
cation law required their children to grow out of the depth of their 
parents' ignorance. There are no means of communication over wide 
stretches of territory, save the beds of creeks and the saddle horse. 
Newspapers are just commencing to work their way among the people, 
but in places there is not a printing press to be found throughout five 
counties. 

Until recently schools were maintained only during the three sum- 
mer months ; now a five-months' term is required by law, but no child 
is forced to attend school, and a great many do not. The children are 
numerous, the people being barbarously prolific, consequently the popu- 
lation increases steadily while the standard of life is correspondingly 
lowered. 

I came in contact with a number of the mountaineers both at the 
school and out in the hills. They are a strong, handsome people. 
Scotch-Irish and English in blood; in every respect splendid material 

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8 

for American citizenship. During the Civil War their qualities asserted 
themselves. Both in the Union army and among the Confederates they 
won the reputation of first-class fighting men. In the great w^ar these 
"backward frontiersmen" supported the government which their grand- 
fathers had fought to establish. 

Among these people Berea College exists as a great social settle- 
ment. In Berea, children over 15 years of age are taught the elementary 
branches ; older boys and girls, with the necessary preliminary educa- 
tion, are prepared to go back among the mountains to teach again what 
they learn at Berea ; and a small handful are given the regular academic 
training and sent out into the world. But the aim of the institution is 
to equip the mountain girls and boys for continued life and service among 
the mountaineers ; to send back to the hills educated men and women 
who will gradually lift the mass of the people out of ignorance with- 
out destroying their virile originality. No effort is made to vulgarly 
americanize the mountain folk; they are encouraged, on the other hand, 
to continue their weaving and rug making and to remain contented 
with their log cabins and crude conveniences. No more commendable 
effort is being made anywhere to join education with simple, dignified, 
wholesome living. 

Berea makes it possible for anyone to secure an education. A native 
told me a lad may come from the mountains with two or three dollars 
in his pocket, which to him is a very large sum of money, and find 
the doors of Berea open to him. But he is made to pay his way in 
work. He may earn his board in the college brick-yards, or in the col- 
lege lumber camp, coming to school at night, or working and attending 
school alternately; or he may pay his way in part by service about the 
college buildings. The tuition is nominal and the cost of living low. 

Girls are not only taught to teach, but also taught to make good 
housewives. They learn sewing, dressmaking, cooking, laundering and 
nursing at Berea, as well as mathematics and history. Boys are taught 
forestry and various trades. A man may come to Berea an illiterate 
mountaineer and return, no longer illiterate, but still a mountaineer. 

The mountains all about are covered with timber, and vast stores 
of coal lie under the soil. Here and there outside capitalists have made 
inroads into the country and are shipping out great quantities of lum- 
ber and coal. Forest land is now selling at $10.00 to $17.00 per acre 
which five years ago could have been bought for 50 cents. Berea College 
is making an effort to keep the hills in the hands of the mountaineers. 
Through its agriculture department it teaches the elements of forestry 
to the boys, and by its publications and extension work it communicates 
this intelligence directly to the mountaineers. 

This extension work deserves conspicuous notice. Men instructors 
and advanced students in the school journey about on horse-back, teach- 
ing history or civil government, and giving stereopticon lectures to the 
isolated mountain people; and so the strands of intelligent influence are 
spread to the remote corners of the region. New students come in from 
outlying districts, learning in this way of the existence of the college, 
and the sphere of its influence is thereby constantly widened. 

The educational problem at' Berea resembles the problem of educating 
factory workers in that it is, primarily, a problem of adaptation. A 
great many of the students come for only three months in the year, or 
for one year, and for these Berea must provide means of effective sug- 
gestion. Classes in the grades are composed of men and women, black 
and white, together with young girls and boys. I visited a class in 
geography where the ages varied from 15 to over 30 in a group of 23 
pupils. This wide variation in ages did not represent a difference of 
intelligence, but, merely, a contrast in opportunities. 

On the industrial side of the school the instruction is made absolutely 
practical throughout. In the laundry the girls wash their own clothes 



and the school linen. In the carpentry and bricklaying departments the 
students actually build the school buildings. In the early manual train- 
ing classes the Sloyd system has been adopted, so from the start every 
piece has a practical as well as an educational value. 

The work of making active and influential American citizens of the 
backward and unsocial mountain people is entirely in the hands of Berea 
and other institutions of learning. These people are self-sufficient. They 
are far from the pressure of immigration, and it is for them to deter- 
mine what direction their lives shall take. Their first economic problem 
is to keep their hills in their own hands, and their second, to learn modem 
methods of intensive farming so that the lands which they have care- 
lessly tilled for years shall be renewed in productiveness. It will be a 
refreshing thing to come among these mountain people in after years, 
finding them wide-awake American citizens, but untempted by the cheap 
attractions of our American city life; contented to live simple, free 
lives in their blue grass mountains. 

Note — The isolation of some of the Mormon communities in the far 
west serves to confirm the impression that the mountain people will 
advance without the difficulty and danger of absorbing new blood. On 
the other hand, the long years of close intermarriage may render the 
importation of new blood desirable whenever the people acquire self- 
consciousness and set for themselves a social ideal in any way as domi- 
nating as the religious organization of the Mormons. 



ATLANTA UNIVERSITY. 

Atlanta, Ga. 

The Atlanta University is an institution for the higher education of 
Negroes. It was founded in 1867 by Northern friends of the Negroes, 
and now, as then, derives its main income from Northern contributors. 
The institution comprises a high school, a regular college course, a 
normal course, and a technical course. For the year 1903-04 there were 
273 students enrolled. Of this number there were 2 graduate students, 
7 members of the senior class in the college course, 25 members of the 
senior class in the normal course, a total of 48 in the college course, with 
a freshman class of 19, a total of 34 in the normal course and 191 in 
the high school course. The high school course covers a period of 
three years. In the first year class there were 94 students, while in 
the third year there were only 40, showing a decrease of 54 in two years, 
or over 57 per cent. 

Of the whole number of students, 92 were boys and 181 were girls. 
Of these 127 were boarders and 146 day pupils, representing 29 different 
counties in Georgia, and 13 different States. 

Since 1876 there have been 462 graduates from the institution. Of 
this number 117 were graduates from the college course, 347 from the 
normal course. Of the total number of graduates, iii were males and 
251 were females. There are living, 91 males and 314 fernales. Of 
these 405, 241 or 59.05 per cent, are teachers; i is engaged in literary 
work; 3 are students; 6 are engaged in religious work; 15 in the gov- 
ernment service; 11 are undesignated; 108 or 26.7 per cent, are married 
women with no occupations. There are no artisans in the number; 2 
superintendents of housework; i nurse and 2 dressmakers. The appar- 
ently significant facts showed by these figures are the large percentage 
of the graduates who go into teaching as a profession, and the absence 
of manual workers from the whole number. Here, at any rate, higher 
education has opened opportunities of brain work as a means of liveli- 
hood to men and women who must, otherwise, have had to perform 
menial or manual labor to earn a living. It is stated that those who 



10 

attend the university for several years but who do not graduate are also 
likely to go into teaching as a profession, so great is the demand for 
Negro teachers for Negroes. The university lays especial emphasis upon 
the function of teacher training. It offers, in its own words, "an excep- 
tional education for exceptional Negroes to prepare for service among 
the ignorant and needy masses." 

The industrial departments, with the exception of the housekeeping 
and domestic science courses, are not designed to prepare students for 
industrial work, but are intended to train industrial teachers. For the 
men, the shop work resembles the instruction in the manual training- 
schools. One year is devoted to wood-working; one-half year to forging; 
one-half year to mechanical drawing, including architectural and ma- 
chine drawing. 

WOOD-WORKING. 

In the bench room are twenty benches and vices; each bench bein^ 
fitted with a case of wood-working tools, squares, planes, chisels, gauges, 
saws, hammer, mallet, bits and brace, draw-knife, dividers, oil-stones, etc., 
and with twelve wood-turning lathes. All boys begin their industrial 
work here (a good many with reluctance at having to do manual labor), 
and are instructed in the general principles of wood- working : Mark- 
ing, sawing, planing, boring, chamfering, mortising, tenoning, grooving, 
mitering, beveling, and dovetailing. All students are advanced through 
a carefully graded series of exercises which are fully shown by working 
models and drawings. Wood-turning is introduced in the latter part 
of the year. 

IRON-WORKING. 

In iron-working the students are taught the correct ways of boring, 
turning, drilling, tappin?^ and finishing iron and steel; the use and care 
of machines and machine tools; the use and care of engine and boiler. 

MECHANICAL DRAWING. 

In mechanical drawing the student is taught the use and care of in- 
struments; orthographic projections; including surfaces, intersections, 
development of helical curves and screw threads ; and arbitrary methods 
of representing screws, bolts, tapped holes, etc. A short course in ma- 
chine drawing includes the draughting of parts previously sketched. 
The course in architectural drawing consists in making plans and the 
necessary details for a house. This course often proves of practical 
benefit to teachers going into poor communities where their knowledge 
of architectural drawing, while elementary, serves them in building 
school houses and cabins. 

Among the women the industrial work is of more immediate practical 
value. Instruction is given to all girls in the high school and normal 
courses in sewing, dressmaking, cooking and household management, the 
more advanced work being supplemented by residence and practice in 
a Model Home. 

SEWING. 

First Year — 72 hours. Instruction is given in basting, running, back- 
stitching, overcasting, hemming, oversewing, French seam, outlining, 
patching, felling, gusset, napery stitch, combination stitch, tacking, gather- 
ing and binding buttonholes, and hemming and whipping ruffles. Pillow 
cases and aprons are made. 

Second Year — 72 hours. Different kinds of darning, drafting, cut- 
ting and making undergarments, and plain machine work. Girls may 
buy garments at cost. 

Third Year — 60 hours. Dressmaking. Students are expected to be 
prepared to buy a chart for drafting; also to buy an inexpensive woolen 
dress, lining and trimmings for practical work. 



11 



COOKINa 



Third Year — 60 hours. The care and management of a fire, the 
structure of a stove, the washing of dishes and cleaning of boards 
and closets are given careful consideration. The chemistry of cooking 
is illustrated by simple experiments, and then given practical applica- 
tion in the cooking of eggs, meats, cereals, batters, doughs, soups, etc. 

The Model Home was erected in 1899 from contributions from the 
King's Daughters, and several individuals. It contains rooms for the 
accommodation of 17 persons, who carry on all the work of the house 
without the help of servants, and is equipped with modern appliances 
for teaching cooking. 

Atlanta University aims to develop leaders among the Colored race, 
leaders by reason of larger culture and more rigorous moral character. 
The graduates are leaders in temperance organizations, sociological asso- 
ciations and teachers' clubs, and are found in the front ranks of every 
social reform movement. In a large measure they are moulders of 
public sentiment, and are helping in a quiet way to solve the perplexing 
problems of the Negro race in the South. Although they are reform- 
ers in the best sense of the word, they are an eminently conservative 
social element. 

A very important part of the work of the university consists in the 
study, by the department of sociology, of institutions and social prob- 
lems among the Negroes. After an investigation has been conducted by 
the university, conferences are held for the discussion of the data which 
has been accumulated. Studies have been made of "The Negro in Busi- 
ness," "Mortality Among Negroes in Cities," "The College-bred 
Negro," "Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social 
Betterment," "Crime Among Negroes," "The Negro Artisan," etc. These 
studies have elicited wide-spread interest and received the commenda- 
tion of leading journals and reviews, both in America and abroad. The 
Boston Herald of February 23, 1903, says in an editorial : "It is not 
easy to estimate too highly the series of yearly reports that are coming 
from Atlanta University relative to the condition of the Negro popula- 
tion of the country. They are social studies that treat of matters about 
which there is to be found nowhere else so carefully gathered and 
trustworthy information." 

The university is controlled by whites, and the majority of the faculty 
are white, although in the faculty there is a Negro who, in many respects, 
is the leader of his race in America. Who, at any rate, shares the leader- 
ship in the Negro mind with Booker Washington, a man of fine train- 
ing, keen intellectual attributes and splendid loyalty to his race. Dr. W. 
E. Burghardt Du Bois. 

The following are some excerpts from miscellaneous suggestions to 
students, published in the annual catalog of the university: 

Each pupil should bring a Bible. 

All should be provided with warm clothing. 

Young women must have rubbers and waterproofs. 

The use of silks, velvets or other expensive or showy materials or 
trimmings is prohibited. Prints, ginghams and plain worsted, with inex- 
pensive lawns and muslins for hot weather, are the most appropriate 
wear. 

No extra dress is required for graduation. Experience has taught 
that much evil comes from pupils receiving food or large quantities of 
fruit or candy from home or friends. They are, therefore, not allowed 
to receive it. Friends will please not send it. 

Letters should be directed to the care of the university. 

Keeping or using firearms on the premises is forbidden. 

Students should arrange so as not to travel on the Sabbath, and 
friends are earnestly requested not to call upon them on that day. 



12 

It is desired to make the school, as far as possible, a home for 
those who attend. Not only their intellectual, but also their physical, 
social, moral, and religious culture receives careful attention. 



SPELMAN SEMINARY. 

Atlanta, Ga. 

Spelman Seminary is a Baptist school for Negro girls. It occupies 
a group of buildings on the outskirts of Atlanta, Ga. The school was 
founded in 1881 under the name of The Atlanta Baptist Female Sem- 
inary. In 1883 the name was changed to Spelman in honor of the parents 
of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller.^ Since 1888 Mr. Rockefeller has been one 
of the trustees of the institution, and has invested large sums of mouey 
in its buildings and grounds. 

The whole number of students for the year 1903-1904 was 650. Of 
this number 336 were boarders and 314 day pupils; 259 were under 16 
years of age; 345 between 16 and 25 years of age, and 46 over 25 years 
of age; 97 girls took cooking in addition to academic work; 16 cooking 
exclusively; 6 took printing exclusively; 5 music exclusively; 16 nursing 
exclusively; 15 dressmaking exclusively; =^23 of the students came from 
Georgia; 117 from 16 different States, while 10 came from South America, 
the West Indies and Africa, 

Spelman is essmtially a Christian institution. Religious work of one 
sort or another is an important part of the school's activity. 

The industrial courses at present given in the seminary are: Sew- 
ing, dressmaking, basketry, printing, and agriculture (dairying, truck- 
gardening, poultry-raising, etc.). Of these, printing and dressmaking 
are elective, the others have definite places on the general program. 
Millinery will be introduced next fall. 

Spelman deserves notice because it is an institution which aims to 
make cheerful workers, who will look upon every kind of labor as 
honorable. As an educational institution it must be classified among 
those establishments, which entered the difficult field of Negro better- 
ment in the South, with a larger share of missionary spirit than educa- 
tional interest. It is not so much concerned with the solution of the 
general economic problems, which perhaps are the most difficult for 
the Negro of to-day, as with the cultivation of private morality. It 
assumes that a woman of Christian training is likely to be a serviceable 
woman in whatever community or condition of life she may find herself. 



TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE. 

Tuskegee, Ala. 

Tuskegee aims to meet some very practical economic problems through 
the courses of instruction offered to its 1,800 Negro students. Unlike 
the Atlanta University and Spelman Seminary, its primary purpose is 
not to develop exceptional men and women, but to raise the standard of 
the average Negro. While Tuskegee began as a normal school, and 
although the normal department still occupies an important place in its 
work, the character of the institute is peculiarly industrial. 

The school is situated near the middle of the State of Alabama, in a 
county where the blacks outnumber the whites five to one, on the northern 



13 

edge of the great black belt, reacfiing from the Mississippi River to the 
sea, in which the Negro population is numerically preponderant. Its 
declared object is to furnish "the young colored men and women an 
opportunity to acquire through moral, literary and industrial training 
education, so that when they go out from Tuskegee, by putting into 
execution the practical ideas learned there, they may become the real 
leaders of their communities, and thus bring about healthier moral and 
material conditions. The institution also aims, through the Phelps Hall 
Bible Training School, to better fit young men and women for the 
ministry and for other forms of Christian work. 

"The constant aim is to so correlate the literary and industrial train- 
ing, that a student cannot get the one without the other." 

Of the work in the academic department the catalog makes the fol- 
lowing statement : "The laborer must not be regarded as a mere ma- 
chine, capable of greater productiveness ; he is a man responsive to 
ideals ; he is a man for whom we seek wider spiritual margin. It is 
good for Negroes in the New South to be artisans, not merely because 
like plows and hoes and horses they will be useful, but because like men 
they will live more wholesome lives." The special business of the aca- 
demic department is to enlarge the lives of men and women, but an en- 
larged life is essentially a more useful life. 

All instruction in the academic department is closely correlated with 
the work in the trades. "Every effort is made to secure a genuine co- 
operation between the instructors of the academic department and those 
of the industrial. Interest in physics is aroused and sustained when 
the academic instructor takes his class to the machine shop to see the 
industrial applications, the utility of science ; a lesson in chemistry is 
fixed by a study of bread-making in the kitchen." This plan is good 
for physics and chemistry and good for tool-making and baking. 

I shall advisedly avoid a discussion of the economic situation in 
the South, The fact that the Negro constitutes over one-third of the 
population cannot be ignored. The mass of this number is dependent 
upon wages for a livelihood, either as agricultural laborers, or artisans, 
or unskilled laborers in towns or cities. The Negro furnishes the bulk 
of the labor of the South. Upon his capacity for effective work the 
development of that great region very largely depends. By far the 
most important training for the Negro is in agriculture ; by acquiring 
skill as farmers the race will increase its holding of land and thereby 
develop a stability which it can never possess so long as it has nothing 
at stake but a haphazard livelihood, which may be won here as well as 
there, 

"In laying special stress upon hand training for a large proportion 
of my race," writes Booker T. Washington, in his annual report to the 
trustees of the institute, "I ask no peculiar education of the Negro be- 
cause he is a Negro, but I would advocate the same training for the 
German, the Jew, or the Frenchman, were they in the same relative stage 
of social development as the masses of the Negroes. * * * w^ have 
borne in mind that the main emphasis should be laid upon training in 
agriculture, since the institution is located in the midst of a people, the 
great majority of whom depend upon cultivating the soil for a living. 
* * * Again, since the South is so new in its manufacturing develop- 
ment, we have also put great emphasis upon teaching the young men 
the mechanical industries most in demand in the South." 

It is the industrial education of the Negro which has won favor in 
the South for his development. "A large element of people at the 
South favor manual training for the Negro because they were wise 
enough to see that the South was largely free from the restrictive 
influences of the Northern trade union ; and that such organizations 
would secure little hold in the South so long as the Negro kept abreast 
in intelligence and skill of the same class of people elsewhere. Many 



14 

realized that the South would be tying itself to a body of death if it 
did not help the Negro up." Notwithstanding the fact that the num- 
ber of immigrants arriving in the United States in the year 1902 was 
very nearly one million, practically none went into the southern States; 
to be more exact, the records show that in 1902 only 2,278 all told went 
into the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. One ship 
sometimes brings as many to New York. Foreigners avoid the South, 
and the South is more and more realizing that it cannot keep pace with 
the progress of other parts of the country if a third of its population 
is ignorant and without skill. "The South must frankly face this truth, 
that for a long period it nmst depend upon the black man to do for it 
what the foreigner is now doing for the great West." 

An educational institution, no matter how splendid its aspirations, 
makes headway only by its results. Tuskegee has won a great many 
friends and found a large number of generous supporters, not only be- 
cause it set out to raise up the Negro, but because it has in so far as 
its influence has been directly felt, succeeded in doing so. 

Rev. R. C. Bedford (white), the secretary of the board of trustees, 
told me that although a very large proportion of the students of the 
institute are compelled by financial reasons to leave the school before 
finishing the course, in nearly every case where a student has spent as 
much as six months at the institution it has been the means in a large 
degree of revolutionizing his life. "We are constantly surprised," writes 
Mr. Washington, "at finding students, whom we had almost forgotten, 
engaged in doing effective work as teachers, farmers, mechanics, or 
housekeepers, and in other forms of labor." 

In an article in the World's Work of August, 1903, Mr. Washington 
presents data showing the great progress made by the graduates of the 
institute, and the service to education rendered by graduates, who, going 
back into their native sections with the "Tuskegee spirit" of service to 
their fellows, establish there smaller industrial schools which serve lim- 
ited sections as Tuskegee is serving the entire South. 

Tuskegee was established under the name of the Tuskegee State 
Normal School, by an act of the Alabama Legislature, session of 1880, 
appropriating $2,000.00. The institution was opened for its first session 
July 4, 188 1, in a rented shanty church, with thirty pupils in attendance, 
with but one teacher, Booker Washington (graduate of Hampton Insti- 
tute). In 1883 the appropriation was increased to $3,000.00, and in 1893 
the institution was incorporated under the name of the Tuskegee Normal 
and Industrial Institute. During the first session of the school, the pres- 
ent location, consisting at that time of 100 acres, with three small build- 
ings, was purchased by Northern friends. 

To-day the property immediately belonging to the school consists of 
sixty-two buildings, twenty-six hundred and thirty-one acres of land, 
eleven hundred head of live stock, and more than sixty wagons, car- 
riages and vehicles of various kinds. The endowment and the estimated 
valuation of the equipment and property of the institute exceeds one 
million seven hundred thousand dollars. Of this sum Mr. Carnegie has 
recently given six hundred thousand dollars. 

Since 1881 the total number of students who have been wholly or 
partly through the course, that is, who have been enrolled and have re- 
mained long enough to be helped in any degree, is about six thousand. 
Thousands of adults are reached and helped each year through the 
Annual Tuskegee Negro Conference, with its various local conferences 
which meet annually; through the Mothers' Weekly Meetings, and the 
plantation settlement work conducted by Mrs. Washington. In addition, 
farmers' extension leaflets are edited at the Tuskegee Institute, and scat- 
tered broadly throughout the entire South. In the main, those who go 
out, (i) follow the industry they have learned, (2) teach in a public or 



15 

private school, or teach part of the year and farm or labor the rest, (3) 
follow housekeeping or other domestic service, or (4) follow a profes- 
sional or the government service, or become merchants. 

"After diligent investigations," said Booker T. Washington, "I can- 
not find a dozen former students in idleness. They are busy in school 
rooms, field, shop, home or church. They are busy because they have 
placed themselves in demand by learning to do that which the world 
wants done, and because they have learned the disgrace of idleness and 
the sweetness of labor. One of the greatest embarassments that con- 
fronts our school at the present time is our inability to supply any large 
proportion of the demands that are constantly coming to us from the 
people of both races, North and South, for our students. But aside 
from their skill what has made Tuskegee men and women succeed is 
the spirit of unselfishness and the willingness to sacrifice themselves for 
others instilled into them at Tuskegee." 

Before entering into a description of the trade instruction given at 
Tuskegee, I wish to say a word about the management and discipline 
of the institute. In the first place, the institute is governed by Negroes 
except in so far as certain white men are active in the board of trustees. 
The institute proper, however, is entirely in the hands of colored men 
and women. There are no officers of instruction and administration, 
a large number of these are graduates of leading colleges. A great many 
are graduates of Hampton, or of Tuskegee itself. Admission to the 
school requires ability on the part of the student to understand addition, 
subtraction, multiplication, and division, and ability to read and write. 
Applicants must be fourteen years of age, of good physique, of good 
moral character, and must bring at least two letters from reliable persons 
in their communities. 

The night school is designed for young men and women who earnestly 
desire to educate themselves, but who are too poor to pay even the small 
charge made in the day school. Students who are able to pay all or 
the greater part of their expenses in cash are not admitted to the night 
school. They attend school in the day time, for four days each week, 
and are required to work only six days in the month, one school day in 
each week and every other Saturday. Applicants for admission to the 
nignt school must be sixteen years of age instead of fourteen, and physic- 
ally able to perform an adult's labor. Cripples are under no circum- 
stances admitted to this department. 

The expenses of students are very low. Tuition is free to everyone. 
A maximum charge of $10.00 is made for entrance fee and books. 
Lodging, fuel, board and laundering are charged for at the rate of $8.00 
per month. Against this charge a student, by diligence, may have credit 
for $1.50 to $3.00 given for labor performed for the institute. Night 
school students, except those in the tailoring, shoe-making and sewing 
divisions, as a rule, are allowed to work out at least all of their board 
for the first six months, and after that a night student may earn as 
much as he has capacity for, but no student is paid more than $12.00 
per month in excess of his board, and no part of a student's wages is 
paid in cash, except that those who work at Marshall Farm (about three 
miles from the institute grounds), are permitted to draw $2.00 per 
month. Whatever a night school student may earn in excess of his 
board is placed to his credit, to be used for his expenses after he enters 
the day school. With a good outfit of clothing, $45.00 or $50.00 in money 
is sufficient to carry an industrious student through a term of nine 
months in the day school. 

Both boys and girls are required to wear uniforms, which cost from 
$4.25 to $6.00 for women, according to the season, and $10.00 for men. 
Military drill is required of all male students, who are under the charge 
of a commandant; but no firearms are used, or allowed on the premises. 

Regular attendance at religious services is required. The use of 



16 

tobacco, liquoror, dice and card playing are prohibited. Students are not 
permitted to take part in any political mass meetings or convention. 
Letter-writing is subject to regulation, and all mail and express pack- 
ages are inspected and contents noted. Low or profane language will 
subject a student to severe discipline. Students are liable to reprimand, 
confinement, or other punishment. Modern bath houses are provided 
for both sexes, and regular bathing is enforced. 

The spirit of Tuskegee is military. A strong effort is made to culti- 
vate the habit of respect among young Negroes for their elders and for 
the members of the faculty. Free and natural social intercourse is per- 
mitted between young men and women, but every effort is made to have 
such relations remain pure-minded. Young men are taught to respect 
young women as a class, and young women to care for their persons 
and to cultivate a decorous behavior. The esprit of the institution is 
especially encouraging. There is a strong desire apparent among faculty 
and students to contribute to the success of the school and cultivate the 
opportunities for raising the standard of life among the blacks. There 
is inevitably an air of self-conscious approval in the bearing of a great 
many of the students ; but the faculty are, in so far as I met them, simple 
and sincere workers for big ends, and not without modesty in the esti- 
mate of their services. On the other hand, manly bearing among the 
men and personal dignity among the women are almost the first results 
of residence at Tuskegee. 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 

The following trades are taught at Tuskegee: Architectural and 
mechanical drawing, blacksmithing, brick-making, carpentry, canning, 
electrical engineering, founding, harness-making and carriage-trimming, 
machinery, painting, printing, saw milling, steam engineering, shoe-mak- 
ing, tinsmithing and wheelwrighting. For women : Sewing, dress-mak- 
ing, millinery, cooking, laundering, housekeeping, mattress-making, bas- 
ketry and nursing. 

Special buildings are provided for the trades, large shops for the 
men grouped in one building, and in a separate building, class rooms, 
kitchens and laundries for the girls. In arranging the courses, four 
things are kept in view : First, to teach the dignity of labor ; second, 
to teach thoroughly the trades ; third, to supply the demand for trained 
industrial leaders ; fourth, to assist the students in paying all or part 
of their expenses. 

All the work is of a practical nature; in the machine shop the 
beginners are set to general work about the shop, filing, chipping, etc., 
until they gradually learn how to hold a hammer and are sufficiently 
skilled to operate the machines. In carpentry a six months' preliminary 
course is given in the use of tools and simple Sloyd problems, but in the 
majority of the trades the students acquire skill by performing the 
actual work, receiving instruction as problems arise rather than in any 
systematic order. Every student in any trade is required to learn all 
the different parts of his trade, but instruction is not so emphasized that 
a commercial product is impossible. Nearly all of the school buildings 
are built by student labor, at a cost only slightly above the cost, in 
working time, for journeyman work. All the vehicles used at the insti- 
tute are built by the students and painted by them, uniforms are made 
in the tailoring department, harness by the harness-making students, 
and tinware by the tinsmiths, furniture by the cabinet-makers, iron bed- 
steads by the machinists, and a large part of the builders' hardware by 
the blacksmiths. 

In the machinists' course, more than in any other, the work assumes 
a distinctly school or exercise character. But the machinists are re- 
quired to keep all the machines on the grounds in repair, and in the 
machine shops a number of working engines have been constructed. 



17 

I quote the following outline of the courses in machinery, engineering 
and founding, from the school catalog: 

"The equipment of this division and the course of study offered are 
designed to give students thorough training in the various branches 
of machinery and steam engineering work. The machine shop is equipped 
with the latest machine tools, driven by power from an Atlas steam 
engine. Lathe, planer, shaper and drill "press work as well as bench 
work and a course in erecting is given. AH repairing of the mechanical 
equipment of the school, including steam pumps, steam engines, wood- 
working machinery, printing presses, metal-working machines, etc., is 
done in the machine shop. About fifty different machines outside of 
the machine shop, including laundry machinery, agricultural machinery, 
dairy machinery, etc., are in daily operation, furnishing the best illus- 
trations of the theory work of this division. In the steam engineers' 
course, the young men have studies from eleven different steam engines, 
seven steam pumps, twelve steam boilers, a complete water works sys- 
tem, with miles of piping, and the various water works' equipment-valves, 
gauges, recording apparatus, etc. 

" The in structors give the students the theory and written work per- 
taining to the trade, and mathematical studies are so correlated as to 
give the students jobs from blue-print drawings and free-hand sketches. 
"A foundry is also in daily operation, where the castings used by the 
school in repair work are made. Two cupolas are used, with blast from 
Sturtevant blowers — one number thirty Caullian cupola, and 17-inch cu- 
pola of the Purdue University make. Two heats are made a week, 
varying from five to fifteen hundred pounds of metal poured off each 
week." 

I give below the details of the courses in machinery and founding: 

MACHINERY. 

First Year — Use of rules, squares and calipers*. Instruction in foun- 
drj' practice. Vise work in chipping, filing, scraping. Use of taps and 
dies. Theory of thread standards and measurements. Laying off work 
for drill press and shaper. Use of punches, gauges, and templates. Use 
of various files, gauge and cape chisels. Babbiting small boxes and 
treatment of babbit. Naming machinery parts and technical terms. The 
action of steam and the steam engine. Packing unions, glands and man- 
heads. Machine shop arithmetic and written work. Proper speed of 
machine tools on various metals. Industrial classes. Mechanical draw- 
ing. 

Second Year — Drill press work with twist drills. Grinding drills, 
reamers and counter-borers. Use of various steels, tempering and an- 
nealing. Foundry work in moulding and cupola management. Boring 
bars in drill press. Valve setting on steam engines. Engine governors 
and valve motions. Duplex pumps, steam traps and water meters. 
Proper methods of piping steam machinery Practical work with in- 
jectors, lubricators and air pump Shaper work in slotting, grooving and 
beveling. Planer work in straight, oval and bevel cuts. Lathe work in 
turning straight and oval, and general repair work. Arithmetic in ma- 
chine shop problems. Boiler management, safety valves, reduction valves, 
gauges and trimmings. Industrial classes. Mechanical drawmg. 

Third Year— Use of jigs and templates in interchangeable work. Use 
of micrometer and Vernier calipers. Lathe turning for shrinking fits. 
Use of mandrels, arbors and chucks. Erecting machines, with instruc- 
tion in foundations, and use of hoists, pulley-blocks and lining machines. 
Five weeks as engineer of electric light plant, with three engines to adjust 
and manage. One given period as foreman of machine shop. Cutting 
worms and inside threading. The steam engine indicator, reducing mo- 



18 

tion and diagrams. Instruction in gear wheels and pinions. Work in 
turning, drilling, planing and shaping in tool-making. Machine shop 
arithmetic. Machine design. Industrial classes. 

FOUNDING. 

First Year — Students entering this department are first taught the 
names and uses of tools, how to cut and temper sand for moulding. 
Cleaning castings, ramming up drags, lifting and closing flasks. Stu- 
dents are expected to have thorough training in the foregoing steps be- 
fore beginning work as moulders Instruction is given in putting up sim- 
ple moulds, the use of the clamping bar, the names and uses of the 
different kinds of facings used in the foundry, venting, sponging, and 
drawing patterns and gate cutting. Industrial classes. Mechanical draw- 
ing. 

Second Year — Carrying and pouring off iron by use of hand ladles, 
at which time the qualities of iron are explained for the different grades 
of moulding. Skimming and feeding are carefully practiced. The stu- 
dent is given the higher branches of moulding, as in pump and engine 
building, stone moulding, fancy return work, core-making and core- 
venting, and in cupola management, lining cupola, mixing iron, making 
charges, tapping out and stopping in. Industrial classes. Mechanical 
drawing. 

The management of the foundry as an ideal shop is particularly asso- 
ciated with every step given in the course of study. 

The instruction given in the other trades is no less systematic and 
thorough. Every department is made to yield a commercial product. In 
the brick yards, for instance, the students made 2,990,000 bricks in the 
year 1902-1903. More than 2,000 fruit cans were made in the tin shop 
' during the same year, and 5,000 gallons of fruit were put up in the 
canning department. The plumbing and steam-fitting in most of the 
buildings of the institute was done by the students in the plumbing 
department. 

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR GIRLS. 

Plain sewing is required of all female students. The work in this 
course covers the first year, for all students, while a great many are 
required to practice the simple processes of sewing for two years. After 
that instruction in dress-making is given. In these courses the students 
do not play at sewing, but are given practical jobs, making underwear 
and shirts for the men, hemming linen for the school, doing plain sew- 
ing for outsiders, making the uniform dresses for the female members 
of the student body, or special gowns for the members of the faculty. 
The course in millinery is reserved for girls who are especially skilful 
in sewing. It is regarded as a trade course, rather than a course in 
household art. The instruction in cookery is of a high order and espe- 
cially adapted to the home needs of the students. Cooking lessons are 
given to nearly 400 girls during the school year. Laundering is taught 
in large modern laundries, where all the school laundering is done. 
Here women night school students are given an opportunity to earn 
a part or all of their expenses. 

Stress is laid upon the home training of girls at Tuskegee. A model 
home is provided where the young women are taught to do by doing. 
The course has been outlined as follows : The home : location, sanita- 
tion. Surroundings, advantages. Cleaning: when and how. Lamps, beds 
and bed-rooms. General weekly cleaning. Scrubbing. Care of dining- 
room. Table serving, linen, silver, pantry, dishes and towels. Duties 
and manners of hostess. Kitchen : furnishings, care. Marketing. Econ- 
omy, punctuality and regularity in preparing food. The sick room : at- 
tractions, ventilation, changing patient's clothing and bedding. Feeding 



19 

and visiting the sick. Yards and outhouses : how to keep dean and how 
to beautify. Visiting: when, how and whom to receive. Housekeeper: 
personal appearance. Dress: what to wear, colors suitable. A practice 
house is maintained by groups of seniors where for a certain required 
period the economies and laws of good housekeeping learned in the 
earlier courses are put into execution. 

At the Tuskegee Hospital a regular nurse training course is given. 

By far the most important work done at Tuskegee is along agricul- 
tural lines. About 35 per cent of the Southern Negroes are tillers of 
the soil. A large proportion of the students at the institute come from 
agricultural districts. Frequently they come to escape the drudgery of 
the farm and seek an opening for a more eventful life through a few 
years_ at Tuskegee. But Tuskegee aims especially to equip young men 
for lives as successful farmers. Twenty-five hundred acres of land are 
owned by the institute. Of these, 900 are under cultivation. Large 
pastures are provided for the cattle and horses. Tuskegee breeds its own 
livestock and aims to produce stock of fine quality and usefulness. In 
the experimental farm various experiments are carried on testing the 
value of fertilizers for the discovery of methods of enriching and adapt- 
ing the soil. The land in the Tuskegee region is not especially fertile, 
so that results are accomplished more often through agricultural skill 
than through happy natural conditions. Results secured at the experi- 
mental farm are published among the farmers of the locality, and when 
of general interest, through the entire South. The instructors of the 
department give demonstrations to farmers about, or visit farms which 
are not giving satisfaction and prescribe remedies. A considerable 
annual product is secured from the institute farms. All food-stuiTs 
required by the school are raised by the school. 

Dairying and truck gardening are taught to the women. Horticulture 
has recently been introduced so that florists will, before long, be trained 
at Tuskegee. 

It is impossible to examine all the various activities of the institute 
with equal scrutiny. They are too numerous, even for superficial de- 
scription. I have set down enough to show how important the work of 
the institute is along social and economic lines. Frequent criticisms are 
leveled against the institution, and many ungenerous charges are made 
against its head, but no one, ho\yever prejudiced against the Negro, 
denies that Mr. Washington and his associates have not failed to make 
a success of what they aim to do. Tuskegee does raise the standard of 
life among the Negroes whose lives it reaches, not upon artificial props 
supplied by a smattering education, but by hard work, hand training 
and moral teaching of a practical work-a-day kind, all of which not 
only raises the Negro's self-respect, but justifies it; not only makes 
him aspire to right living and economic usefulness, but prepares him 
for them. 



HOME INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 

ASHEVILLE, N. C. 

The Asheville Home Industrial School is a seven grade boarding 
school maintained by the Woman's Home Mission Board of the North- 
ern Presbyterian Church. The school was opened in 1887 with 70 
boarders and 40 day scholars. 

In connection with this school there is a normal and collegiate in- 
stitute, and a farm school for boys. At the home school there are 115 
boarders, more than that number the school cannot accommodate. The 



30 

girls come from the mountains, where they live under conditions prac- 
tically identical with those endured by the Kentucky mountaineers. Any 
education is to them a rare opportunity ; in only a few places are local 
schools provided, so that if they wish to secure an education they are re- 
quired to leave their homes. The Asheville school seeks to emphasize the 
Christian home qualities. It teaches, perhaps, nothing more thoroughly 
than the accepted Christian tenets of right living. The girls are taught 
to read and write, they are taught geography, spelling, cooking and 
sewing, but above everything they are taught piety. 

Unlike Tuskegee, the Asheville Home School assumes that a peo- 
ple living the hard, semi-civilized lives of the mountaineers, or the 
black belt negro, requires, especially, a religious basis for their acivities. 
Asheville aims to make the women good rather than useful. Tuskegee 
believes that if they are useful they are pretty likely to be good. 

The Asheville school is, however, a very praiseworthy institution. 
The fact that it limits its interest to the homes of the people it seeks 
to uplift does not discount its usefulness. By teaching the mountain 
girls how to sew and cook, how to make gentle housewives and chris- 
tian mothers, these girls, coming in from rough mountain regions, are 
introduced to the comforts and decencies of civitized life from which 
they are hardly likely to depart when they return to their early homes. 

I discover nothing especially noteworthy in the methods of instruc- 
tion employed at the school. The cooking department prepares the 
food for the teachers and students. Special food is prepared for the 
teachers, who are served in a separate dining room by the girls of the 
school. The actual cooking done in the first three grades is along very 
simple lines but imaginary exercises in more difficult cooking are given 
the younger students. The teacher recites certain recipes, omitting 
some essential ingredient, then tells her class that the result was un- 
succssful : the meat was tough, or the bread soggy. The students are 
then supposed to discover the causes of the results, i. e., the omission 
of parboiling for the meat, or insufficient yeast for the bread. The 
answers in such an exercise, at any rate, afford considerable entertain- 
ment both for the class and a casual visitor. ^ 

The advanced grades are given instruction in the chemistry of 
cooking and dietetics. Lessons are given in ^ simple housekeeping and 
the construction and arrangement of inexpensive homes. 

Throughout the entire course the girls are trained in domestic work, 
room-cleaning;, bed-making, laundering and home-cooking. \ 



HAMPTON INSTITUTE. 

Hampton, Va. 

The Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute was founded in the 
year 1868 for the education of Negroes and Indians, by General S. C. 
Armstrong. The school is located on an arm of Hampton Roads, near 
Old Point Comfort, Virginia. "The aim of the Hampton School is to 
train its pupils in such ways as will prepare them to be of the most 
service to their own people. By the education of the head, the hand, 
and the heart Hampton equips its graduates for lives of usefulness. 
It is expected that whatever a student gains at Hampton, he is to pass 
on to other lives. It is hoped that he will stimulate his people to better 
ways of living, and aid in making the community in which he lives, 
intelligent, self-supporting and Christian. . . Hampton has sent 
out over eleven hundred graduates, of whom sixty per cent are teaching, 
while at least six thousand undergraduates have gone out to prove the 



31 

value of their industrial training. Over eighty per cent, of those who 
have taken trades are either practicing or teaching them. Eighty-seven 
per cent, of Hampton's returned Indians are reported as doing well." 
No Negro graduate of Hampton, to the knowledge of the Institute after 
diligent inquiry, has been convicted of a crime. Wherever Hampton 
graduates have gone, landholding has increased and crime has cor- 
respondingly decreased. 

From small beginnings the institute has risen to an enrollment of 
i,i8o, of this number 96 are Indians and the balance Negroes. There 
are 348 students in the day school, 369 in the night school, 23 post- 
graduates and 432 children in the Whittier practice school. The in- 
stitute owns sixty buildings, which include, besides dormitories and recita- 
tion halls, a library, church, hospital, gymnasium, saw and planing mill, 
workshops, and a building devoted to agriculture and domestic science. 
The institute owns two greenhouses, forty acres of lawns, roads and 
flower beds, and two farms of 750 acres, equipped with stock, buildings 
and farming implements. The location of the school is rarely beautiful. 
The influence ot the sea upon the character of the students can be no 
inconsiderable element in Hampton's work of developing strong men 
and women among the backward races. 

Hampton is in many respects the parent of Tuskegee, not only in 
so far as Booker Washington and a large number of his assistants have 
received their training there, but in respect to the methods and pur- 
poses of the institute itself. The similarity extends down to rules gov- 
erning the conduct of students. No doubt this similarity is not wholly 
attributable to Mr. Washington's splendid power of gathering ideas from 
other institutions. The exchange of ideas is surely reciprocal, for Mr. 
Washington has the peculiar advantage of handling his own problem, 
while the methods of the workers at Hampton are pretty largely those 
of the missionary. Hampton enjoys the composure of an institution 
whose administrators are not the cynosure of all eyes interested in 
extraordinary achievement ; the air of quiet assurance contrasts interest- 
ingly with the bustle at Tuskegee. If this fact is in any way noteworthy, 
it is certainly not astonishing, if one takes into consideration the dif- 
ference in climate at the northern and southern institutions, and the 
difference in temperament between the white teachers at Hampton and 
the colored faculty of Tuskegee. I wish, however, to make it clear that 
I do not believe that Tuskegee is inujred by the comparison. 

Without discussing the activities in the academic department of the 
institute I shall proceed to a consideration of the methods and scope 
-of the training in the trades, household activities and agriculture, which 
activities are steadily assuming increased importance in the school cur- 
riculum. 

Hampton is provided with a group of model shops where the fol- 
lowing trades are taught: Carpentry, painting, wheelwrighting, black- 
smithing, machine-work, tailoring, bricklaying, plastering, shoemaking, 
harness-making, steam-fitting and tin-smithing. 

The advantage of entering the Trade School is that one can take 
up a trade by logical and systematic steps from beginning to end. Each 
department is free to teach fundamental principles, by the careful ap- 
plication of which to commercial work, and by constant drill in the 
use of tools, it is believed that the student has a far better chance of 
well-rounded training than under the apprenticeship system. 

In addition to the above there is a large opportunity for experience 
in the various industries on the school grounds. These industries are 
directly under the control of the institute and are open to the Trade 
School students, who are expected, as a part of their respective courses, 
to spend in them a portion of their time. The Trade School, through 
the munificence of its friends, has one of the best equipments of tools 
and appliances to be found in the country, and tries to carry out Hamp- 



22 

ton's underlying thought of providing such an education as is a help 
not only to the individual, but through him to his race. 

Every trade student is required to devote nine hours a day to his 
trade and two hours to recitation in the Night School. As it is im- 
possible for trade students to earn money at their trades during the 
first part of their trade course, it is expected that those who cannot pay 
their board in cash will have from $50.00 to $100.00 accumulated from 
previous work in the institute, to cover their necessary expenses. Dur- 
ing this time, however, and at the discretion of the faculty, one day 
each week may be allowed as a work day, which can be spent in un- 
skilled labor outside the Trade School. 

All trade students are expected to remain for practice during the 
summer months, if it seems advisable. In order to make it possible 
for trade students to earn money enough to help them complete their 
courses, and to give them the best experience in their trade, a certain 
amount of business is carried on, and this business cannot be entirely 
dropped during the summer. It is believed, moreover, that the sum- 
mer practice often forms the best part of one's trade experience. All 
the students are expected to do willingly, at any time, what seems for 
the best interests of all concerned. Trade students are subject in every 
way to the general rules governing the institute. Applicants for ad- 
mission to the Trade School must be not less than sixteen years of 
age, and able to pass the entrance examinations to the academic depart- 
ment, except that for the machinists' and printers' trades, entrance to 
the first year middle class in the Night School is required. 

Each Trade School course is three years, a portion of which may 
be spent in some of the outside industries. The following lines are 
taken up: First. Actual work at the bench; 2nd. Instruction in the 
, kinds, grades and prices of the materials used ; 3rd. Mechanical or 
free-hand drawing, which, as far as possible, bears on each trade; 
4th. Drill in competitive labor. The Academic or Night School work 
consists of drill in arithmetic, science, geography, history, penmanship, 
etc. A certificate is given to every student who satisfactorily completes 
the required amount of work in any of the Trade School courses, and 
the First Middle course in the Night School, or its equivalent. It is 
distinctly understood, however, as far as the trade work is concerned, 
that the certificate will be given for attainment in skill, rather than for 
length of service. 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION. 

Each carpentry student has a bench containing a very complete kit 
of tools, the use and care of which he is carefully taught by exercises 
in planing, nailing, boring, sawing, glueing, making joints, etc. When 
a certain proficiency is reached, a house or barn is erected either in- 
side or outside the Trade School and each boy has an opportunity to 
apply what he has learned in actual house construction by such exercises 
as: — Laying off foundations, including running lines, setting batters, 
leveling and squaring. Laying off, framing, and putting into place the 
framework of a house; as sills, studding, floor joints, plates and rafters, 
including hip, valley, and jack rafters. Closing in and exterior work; 
as sheathing, shingling, weather boarding, putting on cornice, making 
and setting door and window frames, scroll and ornamental work, 
porch and piazza work, and step building. Interior work; as laying 
floor, casing openings, making and hanging sashes, blinds,_ and doors, 
wainscoting, mantel work, stair work, including newels, 'rails, and bal- 
usters; laying out and constructing stairway. Miscellaneous work; as 
fence building, truss construction, etc. 

All exercises are worked from drawings. Lectures with incidental 
study will be given on topics connected with the trade; as foundations, 
chimneys, trusses, moldings, hardware, painting and glazing, wood and 



23 

other materials. An excellent opportunity is afforded for studying the 
manufacture of lumber from the log to the finish, as the institute owns 
and operates a large saw and planing mill with dry kilns and the 
various machines for the manufacture of lumber. 

The House Building course is arranged to combine a knowledge 
of carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, painting, metal roofing, and gutter 
work; and the course of instruction is abridged from the respective 
departments in which the student is employed. This department is 
designed for young men who may wish to settle in small communities 
where a knowledge of several different trades will be of benefit, or for 
those who wish to become contractors and who desire a general 
knowledge of the whole building trade. 

The Mechanical Drawing course is given as part of the training of 
all trade students. Tailors, shoemakers, harness-makers, and painters 
have free-hand drawing instead. The drawing is arranged with a view 
to giving the student a general knowledge of working drawings, pre- 
paring him to interpret intelligently drawings placed before him, and 
to cultivate his ability to make working drafts, plans, elevations, and 
sections of tools, buildings, machines, wagons, and other work in the 
line of his trade, and to build according to the same. 

The course comprises : — 

1. a. The study of projection-plans, elevations, and sections, 
b. Practice in free-hand sketching (projection). 

2. Spacing and drawing straight and curved lines. 

3. Making joints. 

a. Between straight lines. 

b. Between straight lines and curves. 

c. Between curved lines. 

4. Making block letters. 

5. Geometrical problems. 

6. Drawing plans, elevations, and sections. 

a. From the object itself. 

b. From other drawings. 

c. From memory or original design. 

7. Getting out bill of material and estimating cost of some 

pieces of work actually done, 

8. Designing and estimating. 

At Hampton, more than at Tuskegee, emphasis is laid upon 
instruction in the trades. There has not been the same necessity for 
employing all of the trade students in the work of providing buildings 
and equipment at little cost. There is, however, abundant opportunity 
offered the students for commercial work and speed tests. Wheel- 
wright, blacksmith, tin, tailoring, shoe, harness, paint, machine and 
carpenter shops are conducted as commercial enterprises. A steam- 
fitting department, a press, the farms, the sewing and housekeeping 
departments are also actively engaged in productive work. These in- 
dustries are largely carried on by the advanced students in the Trade 
School, but in some cases they afford employment to capable young 
men who are working for credit to enter the Day or Trade Schools. 
Wages to the amount of $10,176.81 were paid during the year 1903-04. 

The following is a partial list of the products of the Trade School : — 
The blacksmith and wheelwright departments have made 660 trucks for 
38 railroad and steamship companies, have built 19 wagons and carts, 
and repaired 39 vehicles of various kinds. They have also made the 
iron for 1,200 plows, which were shipped to South Africa. The ma- 
chine shop worked up over 50,000 pounds of cast iron, made 6,000 wheel 
axles for plows, made axles, wheels, and boxes for 20 lumber cars, did 
repair work on the Corliss engine, power punch and shear, mortising 
machine, lathes, laundry machinery, pumps, various wood-working 



24 

machines, tools, etc. The harness department has sold 70 harnesses, 
ranging in price from $8.00 to $90.00 each. The shoe shop has made 
167 pairs of shoes and repaired 1,204 pairs. The tailor shop has made 
2,Z7 uniform suits and 234 pairs of trousers. The carpenter shop, in 
addition to^ important work^ in construction of buildings, has made 30,- 
000 typewriter bases, 32 chicken brooders besides picture frames, book- 
cases, chairs, chests, boxes, and stools. The tin shop has put in 160 
squares of tin roofing and made 725 pieces of tin ware. The bricklay- 
ing department has laid 178,000 bricks and 800 square yards of grano- 
lithic walks. This commercial work has not only given the students 
valuable training but has enabled them to do much towards their self- 
support. Manual training in joinery, wood-turning, sheet metal, and 
mechanical drawing has been given to 121 boys not taking trades, and 
has been of a more practical character than heretofore. 

The Trade School students were distributed as follows in the year 
1903-04 :— 

Carpentry 71 

Blacksmithing 34 

Wheelwrighting 17 

Shoemaking 5, 

Harnessmaking i 

Bricklaying 1. ^16 

Painting , 15 

Upholstery ;. 4 

Tailoring 41 

Steam fitting 26 

Tinsmithing i 



231 

The largest number of students have taken up carpentry. The fore- 
man reports that there is not a single boy taking this trade who can be 
called trifling. The plan of correlating carpentry with bricklaying, 
painting, and tinsmithing, so as to give the students an all-around me- 
chanical training such as is needed in the country places of tHe South, 
has worked most satisfactorily. The blacksmithing and wheelwrighting 
departments are among the most popular ones. There is no question 
as to the moral and mental results obtained from the careful work 
required in these trades. It seems probable that another year it will 
be wise to make still stricter academic requirements for admission to 
these trades. The grade of work done in the bricklaying department 
is in advance of anything that the school has hitherto accomplished. 
A fine new dwelling house erected at Shellbanks was built almost entirely 
by students of this department. A new students' kitchen, including the 
brick ovens and chimney, fireproof construction, and granolithic floors, 
was their work. 

The instructors in the Trade School are all practical workmen. 
Some are graduates of Hampton, but every man who teaches a trade 
has had practical experience in earning his living as a workman. The 
discipline and spirit of the shops are not unlike those of a well ordered 
manufacturing establishment. 

The students conduct themselves in a workman-like fashion. After 
the first year in the trade the work is for wages. The institute is care- 
ful that it pays wages for value received. The instructors not only teach 
but act as foremen in the shops. A number of them work along with 
the students, performing the more difficult operations. If the depart- 
ment is large enough an assistant foreman or instructor constantly 
works with the students, setting a standard of workmanship, speed and 
diligence. The facts concerning the school which I quoted above will 
indicate clearly enough that Hampton makes no play at teaching men 



25 

how to acquire skill and reliability as workmen. My observation of 
the shops confirms the claims the institute makes for this department. 
It was a fine thing to see a lot of fellows working with interest in 
their work, with the care and business-like bearing of workmen, in 
well equipped and superior shops, and to know that while they worked 
they not only produced wealth and earned wages, but grew in mind and 
body. 

In addition to the girls in the Whittier Practical School there are 
294 Negro girls at Hampton and 52 Indian girls. All of these girls 
receive instruction in cooking, housekeeping and sewing. They are 
taught in a thorough manner by trained teachers who have the very 
best modern equipment at their disposal. A number of the girls are 
trained for positions as matrons, housekeepers, or cooks. It is a com- 
mon thing for a woman student to secure employment as a cook or 
housemaid in the North for the summer. Girls may earn wages in 
sewing, laundering, housekeeping and waiting on table. All students, 
girls as well as boys, are required to take work in agriculture during 
the entire course in the Academic Department. Experiments are car- 
ried on in the field, 20 acres being set aside as a practical farm. The 
topics taken up include Plant Life, Soils, Plants, Soil Water, Farm 
Drainage, Irrigation, Manure and Manuring, Commercial Fertilizers, Til- 
lage and Rotation of Crops, Study of Special Crops, Plant Propagation, 
Transplanting, Cover Crops, Pruning, Insects, etc. The instruction is 
directed towards supplying the students with knowledge of the require- 
ments for successful farming in the South and West, in the interests 
of which sections the school was established. 

Besides the instruction in agriculture offered by the Academic De- 
partment there is a special course in agriculture for persons purposing 
making farming a vocation. The scope of the work of the Agriculture 
Department at Hampton will be interestingly indicated by the following 
extracts from the 36th Annual Report of the Principal of the institute : 
"So long as it is true that more than eighty per cent, of the Negro 
race in the South and nearly all of the Indians are dependent upon 
the soil for their living, it is clear that Hampton should make agriculture 
its central study. This the school has endeavored to do. Beginning 
in the Whittier kindergarten the children are given plots of land and 
are taught how to raise crops of kale, onions, lettuce and radishes, which 
they are allowed to take to their homes. This Whittier garden is said 
to be the largest in this country devoted to^ school purposes. Certainly 
no other school of the size of Hampton devotes more time and money 
to the study of agriculture. While the young men show interest, the 
young women are enthusiastic. A number of the latter who returned 
last fall reported that they had been successful in the raising of poultry 
during the summer vacation. 

"Considerable progress has been made during the past year in in- 
troducing agriculture into the common schools. The question of caring 
for the gardens during the summer months is a serious one. This has 
been successfully met by asking volunteers to care for the garden plots 
during the vacation. Each year the number of these volunteers has 
increased and the gardens have been better cared for. As a result of 
the introduction of agriculture into the Whittier School, two hundred 
gardens have been started by the children at their own homes. It is 
clear that if there is to be any interest in agriculture among grown peo- 
ple instruction must be given in the primary schools. Hampton is mak- 
ing every effort to bring this about. At the last session of the summer 
school, every teacher in attendance was required to take either agriculture 
or nature study. Several classes made gardens and raised crops during 
the six weeks' institute. The Nature Study Bureau continues to assist in 
this work by issuing leaflets which are in daily use in many Southern 
schools. In order to make the study of agriculture and nature study 



26 

effective in the schools, however, it should be made compulsory and 
should have competent supervision. This cannot be done, of course, 
without the co-operation of school officials. In our immediate vicinity, 
where some of the colored schools are under the care of Hampton In- 
stitute, an effort is being made to establish and supervise this work." 

Instruction in agriculture is given by means of text books, lectures, 
and practice work; class room work is illustrated by means of speci- 
mens, models, charts, photographs, etc. As far as possible each student 
is required to put in practice the principles taught in the class room. 
Students in agriculture are required to out a certain number of hours 
each week into recitation, study, drawing, and practice work. Prac- 
tice is an important feature in the work, and for pure practice the 
student receives no wages. After meeting the requirements as to recita- 
tion, drawing, practice, etc., the student is given an opportunity to do 
necessary work in the department, and is paid therefor according to his 
ability and the actual time spent in doing the work, being thus enabled 
to earn something toward paying board and incidental expenses. As 
in the other departments no charge is made for tuition. 

Twenty acres of land have been devoted especially to practice work. 
Ten acres have been planted with small orchard fruits, and the re- 
mainder is used for experiment and illustration in the growing of farm, 
truck, and garden crops. In the Domestic Science building the depart- 
ment of agriculture has six large rooms, a museum and lecture room, 
a laboratory for chemistry and physics, a laboratory for botany, hor- 
ticulture, and entomology, a farm laboratory, a dairy, and a farm-en- 
gineering room. The department has two greenhouses. 

Hampton is meeting the needs of its students in a sane, efficient, 
and highly skilful manner. It understands the necessity of educating 
men and women for lives as effective manual laborers no less thoroughly 
and carefully than we educate men and women for the cultural activities. 
It is a strong ste^ in the right direction; it will not be long, let us hope, 
before every boy and girl, whether a member of the backward races or 
not, is equally well prepared for the work that must be done and he is 
destined to perform. 



v^ 



PART II. 

NORTHERN INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE SCHOOLS, 

AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTES. 

Page 

Introduction -------- 28 

Letter to Mr. John G. Wood ------ 29 

Report on Williamson Trade School, Williamson, Pa, - - 30 
Report on Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, Philadelphia, 

Pa. - - - - - - - - - 32 

Report on Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. - - - 34 

Report on Girard College, Philadelphia, Pa. - - - 35 

Report on New York Trade School, New York, N. Y. - - 37 

Report on The Baron De Hirsch Trade School, New York, N. Y. 40 

Report on the Manhattan Trade School, New York, N. Y. - - 41 

Report on Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. - - - 43 

Report on North Bennet Street Industrial School, Boston, Mass. - 46 

Report on The Lowell Textile School, Lowell, Mass. - - 46 



(87) 



INTRODUCTION. 

The Northern trade and industrial schools are devised to supplement 
the work of the public grammar schools, and to provide a substitute for 
the almost obsolete apprenticeship systems. They aim to furnish an 
opportunity for workingmen to supplement their common school educa- 
tion and workshop experience with study in evening classes along the 
lines of their practical interests, or to train young men and women for 
skilled work in the trades and industries during the day. 

They differ from the southern institutions in that they are not con- 
cerned with the development of an entire race or class of backward 
people, and because they are wholly intended to open up opportunities 
of advancement, for especially earnest young men and women, in indus- 
trial pursuits. In several of the larger institutes there is some departure 
from the entirely practical scheme of education which characterizes the 
typical trade school. In these institutes means of recreation and general 
culture are frequently provided, which only indirectly result in the 
higher efficiency of those who take advantage of them. 

The northern schools have been organized because of a demand on 
the part of workers and employers for some more scientific and 
thorough method of trade instruction than it is possible to furnish in 
the highly specialized modern factory, or in the building trades, where 
the pressure of competition does not permit employers to concern them- 
selves to any appreciable extent with the development of new workers. 

As a type of the highest development of the pure trade school, I 
wish to draw particular attention to the work of the New York Trade 
School in New York City. On the other hand, the Drexel Institute in 
Philadelphia is representative of those institutions which, while they 
teach their pupils how to do things, are also concerned with their gen- 
eral cultivation and enlightenment. 



(38) 



Chicago, 111., July 19, 1904. 

Mr. John G. Wood, 

General Superintendent McCormick Works, 

International Harvester Co. 

Dear Sir: — I hand you herewith my reports on the several Trade 
Schools and institutions for industrial training north of Mason and 
Dixon's line, which I visited during my investigation. In addition to 
the reports on the schools, I hand you a recent article on Factory Educa- 
tion, published in The Commons, several notes on Apprenticeship Systems 
and a brief description of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums. 

Respectfully submitted, 

901 W. 22nd St. ' HENRY BRUERE. 



(29) 



PART IL 
WILLIAMSON TRADE SCHOOL. 

Williamson, Pa. 

About ten years ago a Philadelphia merchant, Isaiah V. Williamson, 
bequeathed one million dollars to found a free school for boys where 
they might be prepared to earn their living in the trades. 

The purpose of the school is to take intelligent, moral and healthy 
boys, in limited financial circumstances, who are between i6 and i8 years 
of age and to give them comprehensive instructional three year courses 
in the basic principles and practices of the trades to which they are 
assigned, and to graduate them in such condition that by a subsequent 
short experience in actual commercial work they may become skilled 
journeymen. 

The mechanical instruction is supplemented by thorough teaching 
in such school branches as are required to develop the pupils into men 
of good general information, capable of intelligently expanding, with 
growing experience, into superior mechanics. 

The course in the principles of mechanical drawing is one of the 
valuable educational features of the school, and while the purpose is to 
make it supplementary to the trade work and not to teach it as a voca- 
tion, some of the first graduates were so well grounded in it that they 
have made excellent records as draughtsmen since leaving the school. 

Special attention is given to the moral training of the pupils so that 
they may be reliable men as well as competent mechanics. The trustees 
deem it to be quite as essential to have the pupils become good men as 
well as good mechanics. Although the school is non-sectarian each 
pupil, immediately after admission, is required to designate the religious 
denomination of his choice, and thereafter attend its services regularly 
at its place of worship in the neighborhood. The domestic life of the 
school conforms as far as possible to good family government. To that 
end the scholars are divided into families of twenty-four, each having 
its matron and its own distinct home or cottage, cared for by its oc- 
cupants. 

Other things being equal preference in admission is made (i) to boys 
born in the city of Philadelphia, (2) to boys born in Bucks Co., Pa., 
(3) to boys born in Montgomery and Delaware Cos., Pa., (4) to boys 
born elsewhere in Pennsylvania, (5) to boys born in New Jersey, (6) 
to boys born in the United States. Only natives of the United States 
are eligible for admission. These restrictions on admission are made 
because while the capacity of the school is limited to about 200 pupils, 
the yearly application for admission exceeds that number. Candidates 
are required to pass scholastic, moral, and physical examinations, and 
only boys are admitted who intend to follow for a livelihood the trades 
taught them at the school. The entrance examinations are rigorous, and 
on the scholastic side include reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic as 
far as fractions, geography, United States history, composition and 
language. After a moderate preliminary trial, all who prove satisfac- 
tory are bound as indentured apprentices to the trustees for the term 
of three years from their entrance, with the provision that the indenture 
may be canceled at any time by the trustees for the school on account 

(30) 



31 

of the scholar's incompetency or bad conduct, or if for any other reasons 
the trustees think him undesirable for continued support and education. 
By the indenture these scholars are obligated to conform to all regula- 
tions and restrictions prescribed by the trustees or their representatives, 
and all right or claim to control them during the period they remain 
in the school is vested in the trustees. 

The trades taught are as follows, the assignment of the boys to any 
trade being made by the trustees : Carpentering, Bricklaying including 
range, furnace and boiler setting, Pattern-making, Machine trade in all 
its usual details. Steam and Electrical Engineering, Steam-fitting, etc. 
Each scholar takes but one of the trades named and his instruction in 
mechanical and free-hand drawing tends in the general direction of his 
particular trade. The courses are systematic and thorough, and based 
on instructional methods. No money has been spared in the provision 
of equipment for instruction in the trades and the school stands pre- 
eminently for the exercise method. In the wood-working department 
over $900.00 was spent last year in providing material for an exercise 
in interior finishing. After the work had been thoroughly completed by 
the advanced students, the beginners were set to work tearing it down, 
with the result that very little of the material could be used for any 
further purpose. Only rarely does the school permit any of its students 
to be employed in the construction work about the premises. This is 
in marked contrast to the practice at Tuskegee and in a lesser degree 
at Hampton, ^n the bricklaying department costly arches, chimneys, and 
fireplaces are constructed involving days of labor, which are subsequently 
razed. While the machinists repair and fashion tools for their own 
use, they never manufacture pieces for outside concerns. Dies, jigs, 
and castings of one sort or another are carefully made and finished only 
to be thrown in the scrap pile after completion. But on the other hand, 
speed exercises are given trom time to time in which accuracy as well 
as celerity is insisted upon. Naturally the boys take great pleasure and 
pride in these exercises, and their occurrence is a special event in their 
lives. 

The superintendent of the school is a strong advocate of the exercise 
method of trade instruction in contrast to instruction by productive 
work. He does not believe that any good results from the commercializa- 
tion of trade school work, because it inevitably interferes with a systematic 
course of instruction, for which end the school primarily exists. Of 
course this plan of school requires substantial endowment, but if trades 
are to be taught in a school there does not seem to be any reason why 
they should be less thoroughly taught than the academic branches. 

The school term continues the entire year but those pupils who merit 
it are p^iven about four weeks' vacation in summer and a few days at 
Easter, Fourth of July, and Christmas. The school and shops are in 
session eight hours daily on five days of the week and three hours on 
Saturday, each scholar spending about four hours in the class rooms 
and four in the shops daily the first year, the proportion spent in the 
shop gradually increasing towards the close of the apprenticeship. 

The branches taught in the academic department are reading, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physical and political 
geography, history, physical science, English literature, physiology and 
hygiene, civil government, chemistry, elementary vocal music, theory 
of the steam engine, strength of materials, and building construction. 

The Williamson Trade School is par excellence a school for train- 
ing skilled workmen. It represents, perhaps, the most advanced type 
of trade school, the school where the proficiency of the workman is 
the first consideration. Influenced by the high educational standards of 
the North, strengthened by its endowment and the explicit purpose of 
its founder, it carefully selects the boys whom it trains with the natural 
result that its graduates, in almost every instance, become successful 



32 

men in the trades taught them at the school. Of all the boys whom this 
school has educated only one has failed completely, the rest have left 
the school for good positions. There is a constant demand upon the 
school for workmen on the part of employers, and the records of the 
graduates in commercial shops has been in every instance satisfactory 
to the school. 



DREXEL INSTITUTE 

OF 

ART, SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Drexel Institute was founded 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel for the 
promotion of education in Art, Science, and Industry. The chief object 
of the institute is the extension and improvement of industrial educa- 
tion as a means of opening better and wider avenues of employment for 
young men and women. At the same time the academic departments 
provide for the general development and liberal training of the mind 
and character of the students, and in the more special and technical 
courses the same end is kept in view, so far as the necessary limitations 
of the instruction permit. The plan of organization provides liberal 
means of culture for the masses by the establishment of evening classes 
in all departments of the institute,, by free public lectures and concerts 
during the winter months, and through the library, museum and picture 
gallery which are open free to the public throughout the year. 

The institute is situated in the heart of Philadelphia and is splendidly 
housed in a building costing upwards of one million dollars. The 
Technical School has attained a wide reputation for its excellence and 
is ranked with the best of the older institutions of the country. It 
would be as difficult a task to describe in detail the methods and results 
of the institute's work as it would be to perform a similar task in regard 
to the work of Harvard or Cornell University. The conspicuous fea- 
ture of the institute, however, is the fact that while its endowment is 
large, its equipment of the first quality, and its reputation as an educa- 
tional institution of the first rank, it actually adheres to the purpose for 
which it was founded, namely, the education of the common people, 
while other institutions similarly founded and equally well supplied with 
means have developed into institutions for the education of the well- 
to-do. A statement of the variety of courses offered at the institute will 
indicate the range and breadth of the service which it renders the com- 
munity. Instruction is offered in : 

1. Fine and Applied Art. 

a. School of Drawing, Painting and Modeling. 

b. School of Illustration. 

c. School of Design and Decoration. 

d. School of Architecture. 

2. School of Science and Technology: Comprising instruction 

in general engineering subjects. 

3. Department of Commerce and Finance. 

a. School of Commerce and Accounts. 

b. Commercial course for teachers. 

c. Office courses : Secretary, Bookkeeping and Stenography. 

4. Department of Domestic Science. 

a. Courses in Cookery and Household Economics. 

b. Normal Course in Domestic Science. 



33 

5- Department of Domestic Arts. 

a. Courses in Dressmaking. 

b. Courses in Millinery. 

c. Normal Courses in Domestic Arts. 

6. Department of Junior Domestic Sciences and Arts : For 

younger students, 

7. The Library School. 

8. Special Courses in English Language and Literature. 

9. Department of Physical Training, 

10. Department of Evening Courses. 

11. Department of Free Lectures and Concerts. 

12. Department of Evening Classes in Choral Music. 

13. The Library and Reading Room. 

14. The Museum and Picture Gallery. 

Note to Department 10: In this department instruction is given 
in all branches provided for in the Day School, except that 
courses are modified to meet the requirements of abbreviated 
time and special needs of the Night School classes, which are 
composed almost wholly of clerks and wage earners. The 
tuition charged in the Night School ranges from $3.00 to $10.00 
per class. 
While each department is organized with reference to its special 
objects and courses of instruction, it sustains important relations to 
the courses of the other departments, and the various lines of work are 
carried on in so broad a spirit as to give a certain unity of purpose to 
the scope and end of the institution as a whole. Both in the Night 
and Day School special courses are given in shop work in addition to 
the general work provided for by the School of Mechanic Arts, in wood- 
working, exercises are given in joinery, turning, and pattern-making, in 
iron work, exercises in chipping, filing, in forging and welding, forging 
and tempering of machine tools and ornamental work from designs. A 
course is given in machine construction in which the use of machine 
tools is taught, and practical work afforded in the building of machinery. 
The shops are equipped with every appliance necessary for instruc- 
tion. The course in Mechanical Drawing is intended to meet the needs 
of persons to whom a knowledge of mechanical drawing is necessary, 
and whose daily employment makes it possible for them to attend only 
in the evening. 

The full course of instruction in Mechanical Drawing in the Night 
School is divided into three years as follows : 

First Year : Use of mathematical instruments, orthographic pro- 
jections, intersections, and development of surfaces. 
Second Year : The application of the development of surfaces to 
machine construction, and detailed working drawings of machin- 
ery. 
Third Year: Practical working drawings of machine construction. 

The Commercial Museum. 
A permanent Commercial Museum has been established at the in- 
stitute, and a large collection of raw manufactured products has already 
been secured. The collection represents quite fully the following indus- 
trial products: Flour, wool, petroleum, teas and coffees, sugar, cotton, 
copper, iron and steel, glass, tobacco, leather, rubber, paper, wood, car- 
pet, linen, spices, aluminum, building stone, brick and terra cotta. The 
Museum is designed for students in the Academic Department who are 
looking forward to devoting their lives to trade, shipping, or manufac- 
turing, and they are thus given an opportunity of making a special 
study, both from a geographic and an economic standpoint, of the par- 
ticular industry in which they are interested. 

Bef<3re closing I wish to refer especially to the success of the work 
done by the institute in connection with the Department of Free Public 



34 

Lectures and Concerts. During the past year from November to April 
over 30,000 persons took advantage of the opportunities afforded them 
by- this department for entertainment and pleasant instruction. Among 
the recent lecturers I find the names of Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith, Mr. 
Charles F. Warren of the United States Department of Labor, Mr. H. 
E. Krehbicl, the distinguished New York musical critic, Mr. Sidney 
Lee of London, and Professor William Libbey of Princeton. The con- 
certs include organ, pianoforte, violin, vocal recitals, and a series of 
oratorios and cantatas. 



. FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Franklin Institute was founded and incorporated March 30, 1824, 
for the purpose of promoting and encouraging manufacturing and me- 
chanic and useful arts. It was the first institution of its class to be 
established in the United States. The scheme of its organization em- 
bodied many of the features of the Mechanic's Institutes which were so 
widely organized in England during the first quarter of the 19th century. 
But its purposes differed from those of the Mechanic's Institutes in 
that its work was not intended wholly for the instruction of artisans. 
It was, on the other hand, designed as a common meeting place for 
artisans, manufacturers, inventors, and men learned along scientific 
lines, where by the interchange of views and co-operation along certain 
definite activities, both the educated and practical type of man might 
secure helpful suggestions. The institute has for many years, by means 
of a Committee of Experts, conducted a clearing house where inventors 
may send their inventions and receive suggestions and advice of a 
thoroughly reliable character regarding the value of their ideas. An 
important scientific library has gradually been developed by the institute 
which is open to members, special members, and, for certain purposes, 
to the general public. The library has been made the deposit of the 
government publications for the Congressional district in which it is 
located. It receives in addition to these, the publications of the local 
governmental bodies and the reports of scientific associations in America 
and abroad. The library is resorted to by lawyers and their clients who 
desire to investigate subjects relative to patents for which they may 
be applying. Within the institute there are scientific sections which are 
composed of its members, who meet once a month for lectures and 
discussion on the subjects of their special interest. The institute con- 
tributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge among the people 
generally by offering lectures from time to time on the latest develop- 
ments in their branches by scientists of conspicuous standing. In the 
past the institute has organized and conducted exhibits of machinery, 
of the commercial product of certain localities, and in one instance, 
of the United States as a whole. On one occasion the institute held a 
novelties exhibit in which the latest developments along manufacturing 
lines were presented to the public. From time to time the institute has 
conducted special investigations of general scientific interest. In the 
year 1878, for instance, a special committee of the institute investigated 
the efficiency of the dynamo electrical machine for arc lighting, in 1884 
the institute supplemented its earlier work in this field by a more elab- 
orate report on the same subject and on "The Life, Duration, and Ef- 
ficiency of Incandescent Electric Plants," in connection with the Inter- 
national Electrical Exhibition held under its patronage that year. 



35 

In 1875 the councils of the city of Philadelphia appropriated the sum 
of $1,000.00 for the expenses of an expert commission to be nominated 
by Franklin Institute, and, with the approval of the mayor, to act in 
conjunction with the chief engineer of the water department, to which 
commission was referred the subject of the future water supply of the 
city of Philadelphia. 

The institute conducts a drawing school in which an opportunity 
is furnished mechanics, apprentices, and students in industrial pursuits 
to spend two evenings a week learning the theory, principles, and best 
modern practice of drawing. The instruction is entirely individual, de- 
pending upon the capacity of each pupil. Thousands have attended its 
classes and hundreds have graduated to fill better positions in conse- 
quence. 

The full course comprises four terms, at the end of which certificates 
are awarded to such students as have shown sufficient attention, industry, 
and progress. In order to enable more efficient and rapid progress to 
be made the director of the school has prepared text books on mechanical 
drawing with plates. 

There are two terms in the year of fifteen weeks each and the tuition 
charged is $5.00 per term. The institute maintains an Evening School 
in Machine Design in which Mathematics, Mechanics, Strength of Ma- 
terials, and Machine Design are taught. The subjects offered form a 
complete course in constructive engineering, applied to the design of 
machinery, which is planned to meet the needs of those who wish to 
qualify for responsible positions in the drafting room or in the shop. 
This course presents an opportunity to obtain, at nominal cost and no 
interruption of business pursuits, technical training in branches usually 
monopolized by the modern college-bred mechanic. The work is car- 
ried on along lines similar to those employed in the best technical 
schools. 

The entire course extends throughout four years, on the completion 
of which a certificate of study is awarded. The institute conducts in 
addition to the above activities, a Night School of Naval Architecture 
which embraces courses of instruction in theoretical naval architecture 
and ship design and construction. 

The membership of the institute is open to men and women, with- 
out regard to distinction of race, nativity, or religion, the^ only require- 
ments for admission being good character and friendly interest in its 
work. The artisan and the professor meet within its walls upon an 
equal footing, with a common interest to contribute to the common 
stock of knowledge, or to draw from that stock serviceable instruction. 
It is to this meeting of theorists with actual workers, this blending of 
science with practice, which is so pre-eminently exemplified by the life 
of Franklin, that much of the usefulness of the institute is justly as- 
cribed. The roll of membership includes over two thousand names and 
with the exception of a small endowment, the work of the institute is 
carried on with money derived from membership fees. 



GIRARD COLLEGE. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



Girard College is a heavily endowed private institution for the prac- 
tical education of boys who are without parents and the necessary means 
of securing a similar utilitarian education. The school was founded 
in the i8th century before the organization of the public grade schools. 
Although any boy can now secure an education in the public schools if 
he has a home provided for him by his parents or friends, nowhere else 



36 

can the homeless boy secure such practical training, and at the same 
time such agreeable home associations. 

The school has a membership of i,ioo boys who rank in age from 
six to sixteen years. A portion of the time of each of these boys is 
spent in the shops and laboratories for mechanical instruction. A cer- 
tain number are provided with special work in certain trades which is 
designed to prepare them for commercial service as journeymen. But 
from the point of view of industrial education the interesting feature of 
Girard College is the breadth and thoroughness of the work given the 
boys in manual training. The several shops, blacksmith, carpentry, pat- 
tern-making, etc., and the laboratories of electrical mechanics, plumbing, 
gas and steam fitting, etc., are all very carefully equipped and intelligently 
designed for giving the boy who enters them a definite, practical knowl- 
edge of the principles of the trade he studies, and at the same time to 
develop in him a measure of efficiency in the actual operations in which 
principles are applied in making useful articles. 

The object of the work is to prepare the boys to earn their living 
immediately upon their discharge from the school. Except for the spe- 
cial classes in trade subjects no effort is made to give a boy peculiar 
skill in any particular trade, but the aim is rather to ground him 
thoroughly in the habits, elementary practices, and fundamental prin- 
ciples of the several trades. The result is that boys who leave the school 
are able in a short time to earn good wages in any trade which they may 
have chosen to enter. 

From nine to fifteen hours per term are spent by each boy in the 
laboratory of electrical mechanics. The laboratory is a large room 
equipped with vise benches, hand lathes, drill presses, a five horse power 
Multi-Polar Westinghouse 220 Volt Direct Current motor, one Bi-Polar 
Edison 220 volt motor 1.5 kilowatt, two no volt Edison direct current 
bi-polar dynamos 1.5 kilowatt, a working model of an electric railway 
showing all details and containing about 150,000 pieces, a wiring cabinet, 
and a full supply of batteries and special small tools. The laboratory is 
very systematically arranged and presents itself immediately as a museum 
of electrical invention. A practical electrician is the instructor in charge 
and the work is, therefore, primarily mechanical. Theoretical instruc- 
tion, however, is given from time to time to enable the pupil to perform 
construction work intelligently. All construction work is required to 
be done in a thoroughly workmanlike manner, the teacher lectures and 
demonstrates with tools in hand and is followed by the pupils in the 
same exercise. 

The first year the course of instruction covers, merely, the splicing and 
connecting of wires for electrical transmission. Exercises are given in 
soldering, and tapping joint. In the second term of the first year in- 
struction is given in the making of electrical bells. The differences be- 
tween an electrical and a mechanical bell are shown and a blackboard 
drawing of the theoretical arrangement of an electrical bell with its 
wiring, battery and push button, is made by the pupils. Instruction is 
given in the various names of the details of the bell, and the materials 
of which it is constructed. The pupils are taught the various processes 
employed in the preparation of the cast iron bell frame, including in- 
struction in the use of the compass, the operation of the drill press, 
filing, and finishing. 

In the second year the bell is further continued, the pupil performing 
all operations in its construction, including lathe work, the use of the 
cutting off tool, round point and flat tools, calipers, dies, the use of 
the mandrel for holding objects in facing, and the use of the graver. 
Each part which the pupil prepares is carefully explained to him and 
its origin and evolution demonstrated. Finally the electric bell is as- 
sembled, the spool prepared for electro-magnets, and the mechanical de- 
tails of the instrument completed, the electro-magnets are wound and 



37 

replaced, and the bell is tested. If any parts are defective the pupil is 
required to re-make them. 

While the description of the work in electric bell construction is 
typical in its method, of the work in the entire school, it will be interest- 
ing to investigate the work required of the boys in the forge or black- 
smith shop. When the boys first enter the blacksmith shop the instruc- 
tor assembles them around an anvil and describes to them the uses of 
the anvil and the indispensable tools of all blacksmiths. A piece of lead 
is then drawn out by the instructor, and each step carefully explained 
and the proper method of standing at an anvil and of keeping a piece 
square are demonstrated. Following this the boys themselves draw 
out a piece of lead to the satisfaction of the instructor, then shape the 
lead into a hook, which provides them with an exercise in pointing, 
rounding, and bending. After this a lesson is given in building and 
taking care of a fire. The different parts of a forge, the air blast and 
the exhaust, are shown and their uses explained. The various uses of 
coal and coke and the use of the three fire irons are made clear to the 
pupil. The fire is then built and lighted, and a ring made of iron is 
heated, straightened, and drawn out square, the same size as the piece 
of lead drawn out previously. After this the pupil is shown how to 
heat a piece of iron, and the effects of working cold and burnt iron. In 
the second term of the first year the pupil is given further exercises in 
shaping, tapering, and making eyes in addition to instruction in bending. 
Finally instruction is given in the various methods of welding, riveting 
and punching. 

During the third year the method of working steel and the differences 
between it and iron are taught. As a preliminary step to the actual 
working of the steel, the students are assembled in the lecture room, in 
which an anvil and portable forge are located, and a short history of 
iron and the conversion of iron into steel is given. The reduction and 
the commercial uses of iron and steel are explained, and the various 
kinds of iron ore and their chemical comnosition, the making of pig 
iron by smelting, the making of wrought iron, including refining, pud- 
dling, shingling, by squeezers or steam hammers, and rolling are il- 
lustrated by photographs or blackboard drawings. After this course the 
pupils are given exercises in ornamental iron work. In this way the 
eyes and hands of the pupil are trained in forming spiral or circular 
curves, while practical work in original designing is also afforded them. 
Throughout the entire school emphasis is placed upon the quality 
of the work as well as upon the educational value of the exercise. The 
shops and machines are kept in excellent condition; the students are 
taught the value of the various tools and the necessity for their careful 
use, with the result that while instruction in mechanical subjects is of 
such a nature that it serves an important educational function, it, at the 
same time, developes the boy into a careful, thinking, and intelligent 
workman, who with a few years' added experience in commercial life, 
has every chance of a successful and useful career as a mechanic. 



THE NEW YORK TRADE SCHOOL. 

New York, N. Y. 

The New York Trade School was founded in 1881 by Col. Richard 
Tylden Auchmuty, the founder of the "Auchmuty^ System" of trade 
instruction. Under this system a course of instruction is arranged by 
which both the practical and theoretical branches of a trade are taught, 
so that, not only is manual skill quickly acquired, but the scientific prin- 



38 

ciples which underlie the work are also learned. This system has pro- 
duced remarkable results and attracted much attention in this country 
and abroad. It is believed that in the training of young men for handi- 
crafts the combination of the trade school and the workshop is best 
suited to modern conditions; the trade school, to give the young man 
a knowledge of how to use his tools, how to do the work, and the 
theory of the trade ; the workshop, to give the young man experience, fa- 
cility, and speed of execution. For each trade taught at the school a course 
of instruction is prepared which outlines in detail the work a student is 
required to go through, and the order in which the work should be per- 
formed. At first, the student is put on work that is simple, but as 
skilled workmanlike use of the tools is acquired, he is advanced to work 
that is more difficult and complicated, until he is made familiar with 
the various branches of his trade. The work given the student is thor- 
oughly practical, and of the nature of work met with in actual practice 
at the trade. 

The scientific instruction imparts knowledge of the trade that is of 
the highest value, and is given by means of carefully prepared lectures 
and manuals, diagrams and experiments. 

The instructors are mechanics of high skill and long experience as 
workmen, and each student receives individual care and attention. The 
instructors are constantly with the students making careful explanation 
of everv step, and teaching them how to hold and use their tools, and 
how each piece of work should be done. 

The school offers both day and evening classes ; the day classes, being 
open to beginners as well as those who are working in the trades, make 
it possible for young men, who reside in distant localities, to obtain 
the advantages of the school. The continuous application, which the 
hours of the day classes afford, enables the student to complete in one 
teirm of four months, work which covers three terms in the evening 
classes. The amount of time that can be devoted to study by young 
men who have to work during the day is naturally limited, but even then 
rapid progress can be made in the night classes by those who are regular 
in attendance. 

At the end of each term examinations are held in both day and 
evening classes. If the required standard in workmanship, theoretical 
knowledge, attendance and general proficiency is attained, and the full 
course has been completed, the student is graduated and given the cer- 
tificate of the school. 

Committees of representatives of the various Master Workmen's As- 
sociations visit the school regularly during the term, and pass upon the 
work of the students in their several trades. These committees serve 
for no compensation, other than the reward they derive from the school 
in so far as it succeeds in raising the standard of their trades and the 
welfare of the young workmen. The visits of these committees result 
in many valuable suggestions that may tend to increase the efficiency 
of instruction, and better qualify the young men for their trade. 

The school is located on First Avenue, 67th and 68th streets, on 
the east side of New York City. The buildings are arranged with a 
view to securing large floor area, ample light, and good ventilation. The 
shops are steam heated and lighted throughout by electricity. The 
school provides a library which contains a collection of the best class of 
literature and technical works, which books the members of the school 
are privileged to take home. Trade and technical papers are kept on 
file for the use of the students. 

The students number over 600, and while the Night School students 
come from New York or its immediate vicinity, the students of the Day 
School are drawn not only from nearly every state in the Union but 
from other American countries as well. The tuition ranges from $40.00 
for a course in the day classes to $6 a term in the night classes. 



39 

In addition to the regular work of the school, courses of lectures 
are arranged for the benefit of journeymen, not members of the regular 
classes. These lectures aim to provide practical information that will be 
of value to the journeyman in his daily work. The usual charge for a 
season ticket for one course is $i.oo. 

The special characteristic of the New York Trade School is that 
the courses are reduced in length and quantity of detail to the least 
possible amount necessary for thorough instruction in a trade. Here 
again, the school aims, in the manner of the Williamson Trade School, 
to give to its members such instruction, only, as they will require in 
their life work. Unlike the Southern industrial school, it does not con- 
cern itself in any marked degree with the general uplift and education 
of its students. It is designed, primarily, to provide a substitute for, 
and at the same time an improvement upon, the apprenticeship system. 

A general idea of the methods of instruction may be obtained from 
a perusal of the published outline of the course of instruction in pat- 
tern making for the evening class : The term opens on October 12, 
1903, and terminates on April 6, 1904. Instruction is given on Monday, 
Wednesday and Friday evenings, from 7 to 9 130 o'clock. This class is 
reserved for young men between 17 and 22 years of age. 

An attendance of three consecutive terms of six months each is neces- 
sary to qualify for a certificate. The tuition fee for the first term is 
sixteen dollars, and for the second and third terms, eight dollars each. 
The tuition is payable when name is entered at the beginning of each 
term. In order to become eligible for admission at the reduced rate, 
the student must have passed a satisfactory examination at the conclu- 
sion of his previous term. 

The Pattern Making Department is under the supervision of a Trade 
School Committee appointed by the Master Pattern Makers' League of 
New York. 

In practical work the course embraces the following divisions : 

1. A series of exercises that will bring into use the various bench 
tools used for pattern making. The student is taught what the different 
tools are for, how to use and keep them in order. The exercises afford 
varied practice with the tools, so that the student acquires manual 
dexterity. 

2. A complete course of joinery, making the student familiar with 
this important feature of pattern making, 

3. Wood turning. Under this section the student is taught all about 
the lathe, its parts, how to regulate and control, what the wood-turning 
tools are, the purpose and use of each. Suitable exercises give necessary 
practice to enable the student to become familiar in working at the lathe 
and using the tools. 

4. The following work in the line of pattern making is included in 
the full course, namely : Cylinders, pipe elbows and tees, core boxes, cone 
pulleys, propeller wheels, flywheels, parts of a lathe, various parts of 
machinery, and other practical work. 

Drawing is taught in conjunction with the practical work. The 
student will prepare and make drawings of patterns, and work from 
same. This instruction will enable him to read plans and drawings 
readily, such as come before the pattern maker. 

The scientific instruction includes the following subjects, namely: 
Woods and their grains, the best kind adapted for pattern making, dry- 
ing and seasoning; metals, their weight and shrinkage; shrinkage of 
patterns and castings ; wood bending ; making cores, and the materials 
required ; shellac varnish and why used. 

The workshop is equipped with a modern plant of tools and machin- 
ery. The aim of the course is to give the student a broad and compre- 
hensive knowledge of his trade. 

In the course in Plumbing the scientific instruction, which is given 



40 

in addition to the work of a practical nature, includes the following 
subjects, and is usually covered by means of lectures : Drain, soil and 
waste pipes; trapping and ventilation of drain, soil and waste pipes; 
supply pipes ; boilers, tanks ; fixtures, trapping of fixtures ; pumps ; dis- 
posal of sewerage in country houses ; water supply for country houses ; 
miscellaneous; correcting diagrams of improper plumbing. 

The series of lectures treating on the science of a trade are arranged 
with great detail and thoroughness. For each of the subjects printed 
forms are furnished, containing questions with blanks left for the 
answers. The lecturer reads a question and writes the answer on the 
blackboard this answer is then copied by the young men in the blank space 
on the printed form. The lecturer now proceeds to explain fully what 
is meant, to illustrate his meanings by diagrams, and to answer questions 
put by members of the class. 

The school offers instruction in the following trades : House Paint- 
ing, Fresco Painting, Sign Painting, Blacksmithing, Steam and Hot 
Water Fitting, Bricklaying, Plastering, Sheet Metal Work, Carpentry, 
Pattern Making, Printing, Electrical Work, and Plumbing. 



THE BARON DE HIRSCH TRADE SCHOOL. 

New York, N. Y. 

The Baron De Hirsch Trade School in New York was established in 
the year 1885 for the fitting of Jewish young men, in as short a time as 
possible, to enter one of the mechanical trades as a means of livelihood. 
The school admits two classes each year, one in February and one in 
August, the number of students accepted averaging about one-quarter 
of the number who apply. 

The students are assigned to courses for which they seem best 
adapted, taking into consideration their own inclinations as to the trade 
they wish to learn. The applicants are taken on trial for a period of 
fourteen working days. At the end of this period, if the applicant has 
shown that he possesses sufficient ability to learn a trade and has proved 
himself worthy of acceptance as a pupil, he is regularly enrolled as a 
member of the school. 

The courses otiered require five and one-half months for their com- 
pletion, and no certificate is given to any pupil who does not remain 
throughout the entire course. The aim of the courses presented is to 
give the pupil a practical working knowledge of some trade. With this 
in view the first few months of each course are devoted to gaining a 
knowledge of the principles of each trade, and the latter months to 
practice showing the application of these principles. Shop methods and 
practice are followed as closely as possible, and each pupil is required 
to keep a note book in which all practical points covered by the in- 
structor are copied. In so far as is practicable all work is executed from 
working drawings, and in order that the student may do this with intel- 
ligence he is required to take a course in mechanical drawing. 

Instruction is provided in English for pupils who are unable to read 
or write that language. No certificate is granted to any student who 
cannot read and write a fair amount of English. At the satisfactory- 
termination of any of the courses presented each graduate is given a kit 
of tools and a certificate stating that he has completed one of the courses 
offered by the school. 

Instruction is offered in the following trades : Carpentry, Plumbing, 
Pattern Making, Electrical Work, Sign Painting, House Painting, Fresco 
Painting, and the Machinist's trade. 



41 

The following statistics will indicate in a measure the value of the 
work of the school. They are made up from reports received from the 
graduates of two recent classes. The total number of graduates in 
these two classes was 156, total number reporting 123. Of this number 
95, or 17-^ PCJ" cent, are working at their trade; the remaining 28.8 per 
cent have no occupation or are engaged in other work. Of the total 
number of graduates 139, or 89.1 per cent, reported just after graduation. 
Of this number 124, or 89.1 per cent, had started at their trade. The 
average rate of wages immediately after graduation for these two classes 
was $7.25. The average percentage of increase in nine months' time 
immediately after graduation was 28.7. These figures cover the ma- 
chinist, carpentry, electrical, plumbing and painting trades. 

Of the applicants admitted on trial an average of 30.4 per cent leave 
during the probationary trial, and of those regularly enrolled an aver- 
age of 18.5 per cent leave during the time of the five and one-half months' 
course: the remaining 51. i per cent receive certificates from the school. 
The causes for leaving the school are reported as follows : Out of 27 
leaving the school during the probationary period 18,5 per cent left be- 
cause of insufficient means of support; 40.7 per cent left because of shift- 
lessness ; 22.4 per cent were compelled to go to work by their parents ; 
7.4 per cent left on account of sickness, and the remaining 11 per cent 
could not be located. 

In sixteen classes the total number of graduates was 790. Of this 
number 121 are carpenters, 11 are turners, 25 are house painters, 130 are 
sign painters, 223 are plumbers, 191 are machinists, and 89 are electrical 
workers. 

Evening free lectures are delivered in the general assembly hall of 
the school. In the year 1902-3 a course of twenty-six lectures was given 
on Physics, with a total attendance of 2,041, or an average of 78 persons 
to each lecture. 



THE MANHATTAN TIL\DE SCHOOL. 

New York, N. Y. 

The Manhattan Trade School for Girls was opened in November, 
1902. The thought which animated the founders of the school was the 
convictiofx thai- trades need skilled labor, and that working girls need to 
be skilled in order, adequately, to be fitted to meet that demand. 

The aim of the school is, stated briefly, to give the poorest girl, upon 
leaving the grammar school, an opportunitv to learn to be a skilled work- 
woman, in order, first, that her apprenticeship at the trade may enable 
her to take a shorter cut to decent wages than trade work itself will 
afford, and, second, that her appreciation of the meaning and value of 
the work of the world may be more intelligent than trade training alone 
would make possible. 

The Manhattan Trade School for Girls is the first instance of the 
recognition of the need of women for special preparation as wage earn- 
ers on the part of those members of the community who are interested 
in industrial education and the improvement in the conditions of the 
working class. 

A working girl enters a factory immediately after leaving the gram- 
mar school, where she has received no special training which will enable 
her to demand even a living wage from her employers. She is put to 
work at the odds and ends of the trade which she enters and is given 
but little opportunity to acquire skill which will enable her to perform 
work of a nature which warrants the payment of even a living wage. 



4S 

The problems of women factory workers have not awakened the same 
interest in the general public as have those of the men, largely, perhaps, 
because their employment at such work has been considered merely 
temporary, or because no such need for the payment of substantial wages 
to married women, who are supposed to derive a portion of their sup- 
port from the wages of their husbands, has existed as in the case of male 
workers. 

The conditions of girl workers in the sewing and basting trades in 
New York seem to the founders of the school to warrant an effort to 
make it possible for any girl with sufficient energy to prepare herself, 
before or after entering a trade, to do work of an expert order. 

No tuition is charged at the school, and for those whose weekly wage 
is so indispensable that even free training would be prohibitive without 
some financial aid special provision is made. This provision takes the 
form of scholarships, or actual wages for marketable products manu- 
factured by the pupils of the school. An inexpert girl may earn as much 
as $ioo per year, while skilled workwomen can earn as much as $300 
per year. The school depends for its support entirely upon voluntary 
subscription, and is not connected with the municipality or any society. 
The interest of working women has been so aroused in the work of 
the school that numerous working girls' clubs associated in the Wage 
Earners' Auxiliary have raised $100 each for purposes of student aid. 
The expenditure for all purposes last year was uowards of $37,000. 

The school year opens in July and continues throughout the year. 
Advantage is thus taken of slack seasons in trade for offering instruction, 
and of busy seasons for testing and placing in workrooms those girls 
who are preparing to enter the trades. The summer months are a time 
of apprenticeship for the inexpert workers entering at that time. Those 
who show ability and earnestness are given opportunity to continue the 
work in the fall. A month's apprenticeship is required for those entering 
at other times of the year. 

The present work of the school has to do with those trades which 
group themselves about the needle, the paste brush, and the foot and 
power sewing machines. As soon as the pupil can control her chosen tool 
specialization begins in the trade for which she is best fitted, every effort 
having been made to discover the natural aptitude of each pupil. As 
rapidly as the pupil masters one step in her trade she is advanced to the 
next, her progress depending upon her own ability and industry. 

The departments are organized as follows : A supervisor is in gen- 
eral control of a department. Under her there are trade teachers with 
practical experience in their lines of work who, together with the as- 
sistants, give the instruction. The instructors aim to provide the pupils 
with knowledge of those kinds of work only at which they are likely 
to be employed after entering a factory. They are careful to avoid giv- 
ing the pupil so much instruction that she will possess no peculiar skill 
in any detail of the work, and will object to being placed at a lower 
order of work when she enters a factory than her experience at the school 
may lead her to suppose she is fitted for. 

In addition to the trade work and trade instruction which occupies 
a large part of the day, the pupils are required to take work in business 
practice, English, industrial history, and physical culture. In the course 
of Industrial History the aim has been to awaken an interest in the 
trade in which the girl is engaged that she may understand her relation 
to it, and its relation to the industrial world. The conditions of New 
York city are first investigated, and through the knowledge of her own 
surroundings the pupil is lead to a general appreciation of the conditions 
elsewhere. The raw materials upon which she works in her trade, the 
conditions of their growth, the processes of their preparation, the in- 
ventions, and the commercial routes by which such materials are brought 
to New York are each studied. These are all illustrated by the raw 



and manufactured materials, pictures, and by maps prepared by the 
girls. 

The number of pupils admitted to the school is limited by reason 
of space and funds to about loo, and in order that those who do enter 
may do so with earnest purpose and leave the school benefited by its 
instruction the following rules relative to admission are in force : i. The 
pupil must signify her intention of becoming self-supporting. 2. She 
must be over 14 and under 17 years of age. 3. She must apply in person. 
4. She must bring references from some reliable person. 5. She must 
show record of attendance upon school for the number of days required 
by law. 6. She must be able to obtain a certificate of birth if under 16 
years of age. 

The school is in session every week day except Saturday during regu- 
lar business hours, with one hour at noon for lunch and recreation. Dur- 
ing the first year a night school was maintained for the benefit of women 
who are employed during the day, but for the last several months has 
not been continued because of insufficient funds, although there is a great 
need for such courses of instruction. 

The school is watched by educators and students of social problems 
everywhere with great interest. It has already proved to its founders 
the validity of the assumption which led to its organization. A number 
of girls have actually been helped through its agency, and an increasingly 
large number are seeking admission to its classes. The employers in the 
garment and paper trades are beginning to call upon the school for 
workers, and although they were at first unwilling to admit the justice 
of the demand of the graduates of the school for a higher class of work 
and better wages than are usually given to girls beginning in the trades, 
they are now in some instances recognizing that it is safe and practicable 
to do so. 

The school does not intend to limit its work to lines which it has 
already taken up, but will seek to widen the range of its work with the 
increase of the demand and interest on the part of the public. That it is 
entering a vitally important field of work there can be no question ; in 
respect to the garment trades, at any rate, the work of the school is the 
logical complement of the anti-sweat shop enactments. 



PRATT INSTITUTE. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Pratt Institute was established 1887 by Mr. Charles Pratt, of Brooklyn, 
for the promotion of manual and industrial education, and for cultivation 
in literature, science, and art. It seeks to inculcate habits of industry 
and thrift, and to foster all that makes for right living and good citi- 
zenship, and to aid those who are willing to aid themselves. 

The liberal endowment of the Institute makes it possible for it to 
charge a merely nominal tuition, and at the same time secure highly 
efficient teachers, and to provide them with equipment of a superior order. 

The Institute conducts both day and evening classes, into which both 
sexes are admitted on an equal footing. The work has three distinct 
ends in view : i. General Education, the purpose being the harmonious 
development of the faculties, as in the work of the High School. 2. Nor- 
mal ; the aim being the preparation of the student to become a teacher. 
3. Technical or special training; to secure practical skill in the various 
branches of the fine, industrial, and domestic arts, the handicrafts, the 
applied sciences, and the mechanical trades. 



44 



The various courses are as follows: 



Art. 
Domestic Art. 



General Art. 

Architecture. 

Design, 

Sewing, 

Dressmaking. 

Art Needlework, 



Leather Carving. 
Wood Carving. 
Art Metal, 
Sewing. 
Dressmaking, 
Art Needlework, 



DAY COURSES. 

HIGH SCHOOL. 

Manual Training Course, 

NORMAL. 

Art and Manual Training, 
Domestic Science, 

KINDERGARTEN. 

Full-Time Courses. 

Millinery. 

General Course in Domestic Science. 

Steam and Machine Design. 

Applied Electricity. 

Kindergarten Methods. 

Library Science. 

Part-Time Courses. 
Millinery. 
Basketry. 
Cookery. 
Serving. 
Laundry Work. 
Kindergarten Methods. 
Physical Training for Women. 

EVENING COURSES. 



Freehand Drawing. 

Rendering of Historic Ornament. 

Life Drawing. 

Design. 

Architectural Drawing. 

Art Metal Work, 

Wood and Leather Carving. 

Clay and Wax Modeling. 

Sewing. 

Dressmaking. 

Costume Design, 

Millinery. 

Basketry. 

Cookery, 

Laundry Work, 



Physics, 

Chemistry. 

Applied Electricity. 

Mechanical Drawing. 

Mechanism. 

Steam and Steam Engine. 

Strength of Materials. 

Carpentry. 

Machine Work, 

Plumbing. 

Sign Painting. 

Fresco Painting. 

Physical Training. 

Serving. 



SATURDAY COURSES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. 

Drawing. Art Needlework. 

Manual Training. Basketry. 

Sewing. Cookery. 

Physical Training for Girls. 

The following are the several departments of the Institute: High 
School, Department of Fine Arts, Department of Domestic Art, Depart- 
ment of Domestic Science, Department of Kindergartens, Department of 
Libraries, and the Department of Science and Technology. 

For the purposes of this report it will be sufficient to consider the 
work in the Departments of Domestic Art, Domestic Science, and Science 
and Technologv. In the Department of Domestic Art comprehensive 
courses of study are provided in those branches which are related to the 
healthful and appropriate clothing of the body, and to household decora- 
tion. The day courses in this department are : A normal course in do- 



45 

mestic art, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, art needlework, costume de- 
sign, and basketry. In the evening classes sewing, dressmaking, millinery 
and basketry are taught. The work in these courses is divided between 
practical, accurate work and instruction by means of lectures. Particular 
attention is paid to the training of the women students to care for homes 
and to meet the practical problems which are involved in economical 
housekeeping. Technical courses are, however, provided for those students 
who wish to employ their training for professional use, but it is made clear 
that the work in these courses can serve only as the foundation for future 
experience. 

In the Department of Domestic Science courses are offered which 
afford training in the subjects which pertain to life in the home. The 
day courses in this department are as follows : Normal course in Domestic 
Science and Art, general course in Domestic Science, Cookery, Serving 
and Laundry Work. The evening courses are: Cooking, Serving and 
Laundry Work. While considerable practical experience is given in these 
courses which would enable those who follow them conscientiously to use 
the knowledge which they thus acquire, as a means of livelihood, the work, 
is largely regarded as character training and preparation for domestic 
life. In both the Departments of Domestic Science and Domestic Art 
special emphasis is laid upon the training of students who wish to become 
teachers in one of the several subjects which they offer, and the thor- 
oughness of instruction has awakened a constant demand for teachers in 
Domestic Science and Art who have received their training at Pratt 
Institute. 

The Department of Science and Technology provides courses of study 
in mechanical and electrical lines, which are intended to prepare young 
men for important positions in draughting room and workshop. The 
department does not seek to train journeymen for factory and trade work 
so much as it aims to prepare its students for positions as foremen, as- 
sistant superintendents, and specially skilled workers in the industries. 
The courses given in this department are as follows: 

TWO-YEAR DAY COURSES. 

Steam and Machine Design. Applied Electricity. 

EVENING TECHNICAL AND TRADE COURSES. 

Physics. Mechanism. 

Chemistry. Steam and the Steam Engine. 

Applied Electricity. Strength of Materials. 

Mechanical Drawing. Plumbing. 

Carpentry and Pattern Making. Sign Painting. 

Machine work. Fresco Painting. 

The Evening Trade classes furnish a thorough and practical training 
in the various trades which is designed to be of immediate value to every 
one attending them, by giving the members of the classes greater skill 
and accuracy and a knowledge of the technical points of their trades. 
These classes are limited to students between i6 and 25 years of age, and 
they meet on three evenings of the week from October to April. These 
courses are attended very largely by journeymen who find in thern a valu- 
able aid in their advancement to positions of greater responsibility. A 
very small number of the students in the night classes are without some 
practical experience in the work which they take up at the Institute. 

The Pratt Institute is primarily an educational institution wherein 
hand training has been made an important part of the curriculum. The 
instruction which it offers in commercial subjects is intended, very largely, 
to supplement practical experience, or to provide with special information 
those persons who are seeking to equip themselves for work requiring 
more advanced training than is necessary for mere journeymen mechanics. 



46 

THE NORTH BENNET STREET INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 

Boston, Mass. 

The North Bennet Street Industrial School deserves notice because it, 
in many respects, was the pioneer in introducing industrial work into 
the common school system of Boston. Its organization resulted from the 
success attending upon the establishment of kindergartens in Boston, and 
its existence is due, in a large measure, to the steadfast interest in its 
development of the woman through whose enthusiastic public spirit the 
incorporation of the kindergartens into the school system, and later the 
industrial educational activities, was made possible. 

The work of the school in no way resembles the scope and method of 
the trade school, although numerous instances exist of boys and girls 
earning their livelihood in the arts with which they first became ac- 
quainted in the classes of the school. The work is designed to meet the 
needs of a crowded slum population in the north end of Boston, where are 
centered large numbers of immigrants from Italy and Jewish Russia. The 
children of these people are here taught in evening classes how to use 
their hands in the simple domestic arts and the artistic crafts. Classes 
are provided in clay modeling, wood and other carving, sloyd and cabinet 
work, cooking, millinery, printing, and freehand drawing. The charges 
for tuition are entirely nominal, so that no child is prohibited from the 
advantages which attendance upon any of the classes may bring him. 

Not only does the school conduct evening classes, but in co-operation 
with the neighborhood city schools, it furnishes instruction to classes sent 
to it by these schools in such work along industrial lines for which the 
Board of Education has not made provision. The example and efforts 
of the North Bennet Street Industrial School in this connection have 
resulted in the provision for industrial work in those schools which have 
been most intimately affected by its influence. 

A vacation school is conducted in addition to the regular winter 
activities, which reaches a large ^umber of children, and supplies them 
with beneficial and interesting employment at times when they would 
otherwise have to seek recreation and entertainment in the streets. 

The teachers in the school take an active interest in the problems 
of the community in which the school is located, and play an important 
part in the solution of the many problems which rise from the herding 
together of a large number of immigrants in an old and unsanitary por- 
tion of the city. 



THE LOWELL TEXTILE SCHOOL. 

Lowell, Mass. 

The Lowell Textile School was opened in January, 1897, for the pur- 
pose of providing thorough instruction in the theory and practical art 
of manufacturing all fibres known to the textile industry. The plan of 
the school is largely adopted from similar institutions in European coun- 
tries, but it differs from these institutions in the breadth of its curriculum. 
Its establishment resulted from the interest in the work of these foreign 
schools, on the part of the manufacturers of fabrics and textile machin- 
ery, whose industries are, perhaps, the most important of this region. The 
incorporators are mainly representatives, either as president, treasurer, 
agent, or superintendent, of the textile manufacturing corporations of 
Lowell, Lawrence, and the vicinity, in the Merrimack Valley, with an 
aggregate capital above sixty-five million dollars. By the terms of the 



47 

By-Laws at least three-quarters of the Trustees must be "persons actually 
engaged in or connected with textile or kindred manufactures." This 
provision was designed to insure the practical character of the manage- 
ment and the instruction. 

The institution is now housed in four large buildings of the modern 
mill type, which are adapted to the purposes of the School. The equip- 
ment includes a large variety of machines for the manufacture of textiles 
and the preparation of fibres, and a special effort has been made to place 
in the School every type of machine which the American textile manufac- 
turer may require. The School has a more varied equipment than any 
other existing textile school, either in America or Europe. 

The aim of the School is not to educate professional scientific men, 
but to offer instruction which will be of service in industrial and com- 
mercial undertakings ; but the School offers to graduates of universities 
and scientific institutions the advantages of technical instruction in the 
practical application of certain sciences. 

Both day and evening classes are conducted. The day classes are 
designed for those who intend to enter the business of textile manufactur- 
ing in any branch. The evening classes provide instruction for those 
who are engaged during the day in mills and workshops, thereby enabling 
those who wish it to perfect their knowledge of the branches in which 
they work, or to acquire knowledge of other processes than those in 
which they are regularly engaged. It is possible for members of the 
evening classes in the course of several winters to complete a thorough 
technical education without interfering with their daily duties. In some 
instances, however, local manufacturers have permitted a number of their 
employees to attend classes in the School during working hours for sev- 
eral periods a week. 

The regular courses for day students are as follows: i. Cotton Manu- 
facturing. 2. Wool Manufacturing. 3, Designing. 4. Chemistry and 
Dyeing. 5. Weaving. 

The evening courses are: i. Cotton Spinning. 2. (a) Woolen Spinning; 
(b) Worsted Spinning. 3. Designing. 4. Chemistry and Dyeing. 5. (a) 
Warp Preparation; (b) Weaving. 6. Mechanical Engineering Instruc- 
tion is given by means of lectures and practical work, but particular 
emphasis is laid upon the practical execution of the theories taught. 



^ 



APPENDIX. 

Page. 
Note on Hebrew Technical Institute, New York, N. Y. - 49 

Note on Apprenticeship System at Baldwin Locomotive Works, 

Philadelphia, Pa. ..._._ 49 

Note on Apprenticeship System at Richard Hoe and Co., New York, 

N. Y. 51 

/Note on Apprenticeship System at Brown and Sharpe, Providence, 

R. I. 53 

Note on Apprenticeship System at Westinghouse Electrical Co., East 

Pittsburgh, Pa. - - - - - - - 53 

Note on N. O. Nelson Mfg. Co., Leclair, 111. . - _ 53 

Note on Winona Trade and Technical School, Indianapolis, Ind. 54 

Note on The Philadelphia Commercial Museums, Philadelphia, Pa. 54 
Note on Spring Garden Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. - - 55 

Factory Education, Henry Bruere, reprinted from The Commons 

June 1904 - 56 



(48) 



APPENDIX. 

HEBREW TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. 

New York. 

NOTE. 

The Hebrew Technical Institute is a school of twenty-one years' stand- 
ing, for the education of Jewish young men in the mechanical arts. The 
Institute offers a three years' course for a complete and thorough training 
in the trades, which is intended to take the place of the Apprenticeship 
System. Evening classes are also conducted for men at work in the trades 
and have proved unusually successful. 

The Institute was established by Hebrews, and receives its entire sup- 
port from the members of the Jewish race. 

The enrollment for 1903 was 211, with an average daily attendance 
of 173. Of the entire number enrolled, loi were in the First Class and 46 
in the Senior Class, with 64 in the Middle Class. Out of 34 graduates 
in a recent class, 14 were graduated from the Electrical Department, 11 
from the Drawing Department, 5 from the Metal Working Department, 
and 4 from the Woodworking Department. 

The total number of living graduates is 416. Of 372 reporting 261, or 
70 per cent, are following mechanical work. The average weekly earning 
of the class of 1886 is $45 for each member; of the class of 1902 the 
average weekly earning is $7 for each member. The averages for the 
classes between the years 1902 and 1886 show a steady and regular in- 
crease in earning capacity with the length of time of actual experience in 
the trades. 



THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS. 

NOTE. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Burnham, Williams & Co., manufacturers of the Baldwin Locomotives, 
have developed a thorough Apprenticeship System for the training of 
skilled workers along the lines which their industry requires. A special 
Foreman of Apprentices has been appointed, whose duty it is to keep in 
touch with every indentured young man, and to see to it that his train- 
ing is well rounded by preventing his being kept at one detail for a greater 
length of time than the acquisition of proficiency at that particular work 
necessitates. 

The following is the official statement of the company concerning 
its Apprenticeship System : 

APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM. 

In recent years manufacturing has tended so largely toward specializa- 
tion that young men apprenticed to mechanical trades have been able in 
most cases only to learn single processes, and, as a result, the general 

(49) 



50 

mechanic has threatened to become practically extinct, to the detriment of 
manufacturing interests generally. In view of this fact the Baldwin Loco- 
motive Works have established a system of apprenticeship on a basis 
adapted to existing social and business conditions. 
Apprentices are taken in three classes, as follows : 

APPRENTICES OF THE FIRST CXASS. 

The first class will include boys seventeen years of age, who have 
had a good common school education, and who will bind themselves by 
indentures (with the consent of a parent or guardian in each case) to 
serve for four years ; to be regular at their work ; to obey all orders 
given them by the foreman or others in authority; to recognize the super- 
vision of the firm over their conduct out of the shop as well as in it; 
and to attend such night schools during the first three years of their 
apprenticeship as will teach them, in the first year, elementary algebra and 
geometry; and in the remaining two years, the rudiments of mechanical 
drawing. 

APPRENTICES OF THE SECOND CLASS. 

The second class indenture is similar to that of the first class except 
that the apprentice must have had an advanced grammar school or high 
school training, including the mathematical courses usual in such schools. 
He must bind himself to serve for three years, and to attend night schools 
for the study of mechanical drawing, at least two years, unless he has 
already sufficiently acquired the art. 

APPRENTICES OF THE THIRD CLASS. 

The third class indenture is in the form of an agreement made with 
persons twenty-one years of age or over, who are graduates of colleges, 
technical schools, or scientific institutions, having taken courses covering 
the higher mathematics and the natural sciences, and who desire to secure 
instruction in practical shop work. 

The indentures or agreement in each case place upon the firm the 
obligation to teach the apprentice his art thoroughly and to furnish him 
abundant opportunity to acquire a practical knowledge of mechanical 
business. The firm is also bound to retain the apprentice in service until 
he has completed the term provided for in the indenture or agreement, 
provided his services and conduct are satisfactory. In all cases the firm 
reserves the right to dismiss the apprentice for cause. 
The rates of pay in the different classes are as follows : 

I St year 2d year 3d year 4th year 
per hr. per hr. per hr. per hr. 

Apprentices of the First Class 5c 7c 9c iic 

Apprentices of the Second Class 7c 9c iic 

Apprentices of the Third Class — 

First 6 months of first year, 13c per hour. 
Second 6 months of first year, i6c per hour. 
First 6 months of second year, i8c per hour. 
Second 6 months of second year, 20c per hour. 

In addition to the rates mentioned above, apprentices of the first class 
each receive an additional sum of $125, and apprentices of the second 
class an additional sum of $100, at the expiration of their full term of 
apprenticeship respectively. 

By the course of training provided for in this system it is believed 
that a great benefit will accrue to the mechanic as well as to the employer. 
To young men who have received a thorough technical education, the 
two years' course in shop work is especially recommended. 

Further particulars will be given on application. 

BuRNHAM^ Williams & Co. 



51 

RICHARD HOE & CO. 

NOTE. 

New York. 

Richard Hoe & Co. conduct a night school for the benefit of their 
apprentices, in which indentured boys in their employ are giving instruc- 
tion to supplement their shop experience at, the company's expense. 
Richard Hoe & Co. manufacture a high class product, such as printing 
presses, saws and various intricate machines, and for the successful 
continuance of their business they must be able constantly to fill any 
vacancy which may occur in the ranks of their expert workers. 

The following is the full form of the Apprentice's Engagement used 
by this company, and the Rules and Regulations for Apprentices, which 
the company enforces : 

. APPRENTICE'S ENGAGEMENT. 

New York, , 190. . 

The undersigned, , with the consent and 

approbation of his parents or guardians, parties to this agreement, in con-f 
sideration of the sum of One Dollar paid to him, the receipt of which is 
hereby acknowledged, agrees and binds himself to serve a full term of 
five years' apprenticeship with R. Hoe & Co., Printing Press Manufac- 
turers, 504-520 Grand Street, New York, receiving weekly wages as 
follows : 

For the first six months $2.50 

For the second six months 3.00 

For the second year 3.50 

For the third year 4.50 

For the fourth year 5.50 

For the fifth year 7.00 

Three hundred and five days are to constitute a year's work. 
He agrees to perform his duties with fidelity and punctuality and to 
conform to all the rules and regulations of the firm and as printed on the 
third page of this Agreement. 

R. Hoe & Co. agree to give him every opportunity to learn the trade 

of and the advantages of their night school, v^ithout 

charge. 

The apprentice, , agrees to attend this school, as 

required by R. Hoe & Co. 

At the end of the fifth year a diploma will be awarded to him by R. 
Hoe & Co., stating that he has served the full term of apprenticeship and 
giving his status as a workman. 

The right is reserved by R. Hoe & Co. to cancel this agreement, and 
discharge the said for cause, either carelessness, dis- 
obedience of orders, unsteadiness or inefficiency, and it is understood that 
in this case no obligation is incurred by R. Hoe & Co. toward the said 
apprentice. 

Apprentice's . Signature 

Address : 

Witnesses : Age 



We (I) (parents or guardian) agree that our 

(son or ward) shall serve the firm of R. Hoe & Co. upon the terms 
specified above. 

Witness my hand and seal this day of 190. . 

Signatures of Parents or Guardian. 



52 

RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

No apprentice will be employed who is less than sixteen or more than 
eighteen years of age. He must be physically sound, of good moral 
character, and have attended school at least four years. He must be 
accompanied by his parents or guardian, who shall sign this agreement 
with him. 

The term of apprentice's trial is 30 days. If at the end of that time 
he has been satisfactory, and he then signs with his parents an agreement 
to fulfill his apprenticeship, he will be paid for the month of trial, and this 
will count in as part of his apprenticeship. On the other hand, if he is 
rejected for any reason, and he does not sign the apprenticeship papers, he 
is to receive nothing for the month's trial. 

A rating shall be kept by each foreman, and any apprentice receiving 
for efficiency and deportment a rating of ninety-five per cent, out of one 
hundred per cent, shall be allowed two weeks, with pay, in each year, 
which may be deducted from his term of apprenticeship, or taken as a 
vacation. 

If he performs his duty with fidelity and punctuality, he shall fully 
partcipate in the piece-work earnings of his gang; but if he sholld fail to 
do so, his foreman may charge 50 cents per week against hitn, to be de- 
ducted from the piece-work earnings, which shall be held by the firm, to 
be paid as a bonus to the ten apprentices (apportioned equally) who make 
the highest rating, at the termination of their apprenticeship. The division 
of this fund, should there be any, will be made in January to the appren- 
tices having finished their term during the previous year. 

When an apprentice, either through carelessness or disobedience of 
orders, breaks a tool or spoils work, the firm reserves the right to charge 
against him such time and impose such penalty as in its discretion may 
' seem just and proper. All tools delivered to an apprentice must be re- 
turned to the tool-room or paid for by the apprentice. 

He shall make up all lost time, and no new year of service shall com- 
mence until he shall have worked a full twelve months, which shall not 
include lost time or time charged against him the preceding year. 

The use of tobacco and spirituous liqyor on the premises is strictly 
forbidden. 

Before an apprentice is discharged, for cause, his parents shall be duly 
notified and given a chance to show cause why he should not be discharged. 



BROWN & SHARPE CO. 

NOTE. 

Providence, R. I. 

Brown, Sharpe & Co. are manufacturers of machine tools, and there- 
fore are constantly in need of high class workmen. For the purpose of 
supplying this demand they have established an Apprenticeship System, 
and appointed a Foreman of Apprentices for the supervision of the in- 
struction of the indentured boys. 

There are at present 112 apprentices in the company's employ^ who 
have been selected by the Foreman from a large number of applicants 
as boys who are likely to take earnest advantage of the opportunity for 
learning a trade which the Apprenticeship System affords them. A pre- 
liminary knowledge of arithmetic is required and each boy is given a 
test in the elementary branches of this subject before he is indentured. 
After this he is consigned to one of the several departments and put to 
work at simple processes. When he has acquired sufficient skill he is 



63 

transferred to a lathe and kept there for a year. He is then, if he has 
proved sufficiently capable, given experience in the other branches of the 
machinists' trade. In addition to the regular machine shop work, he re- 
ceives instruction in smithing and forging. 

While there is no fixed course of training, a general standard is main- 
tained, and every boy must meet its requirements. This standard has been 
set by the actual performances in the different departments by former 
apprentices, and is in no way arbitrarily determined by the company. 

The company provides a library of mechanical works and fiction, which 
the boys are encouraged to use and to which they are frequently referred 
for special reading on their trades. There is, however, no special educa- 
tional requirement as exists at the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the 
Richard Hoe & Co. factoiy. ^ 

An Apprentices' Association exists, which meets bi-weekly, for a part 
of the noon hour, to discuss and debate matters of interest, or to hear 
lectures on the trades. 

The apprentices are, from the start, employed on piece work. 



THE WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRICAL COMPANY. 

NOTE. 

East Pittsburg, Pa. 

In the year 1902 the Westinghouse Electrical Company, of East Pitts- 
burg, Pa., invited its apprentices to take instruction in mechanical draw- 
ing, which the company offered to provide at the factory. The classes 
in mechanical drawing proved so successful that before the end of the 
year a Technical School had been established, and is now conducted 
every night in the week, immediately after work, by the employes them- 
selves, with the active co-operation of the company. 

The nature of the work at the Westinghouse plant requires high intel- 
ligence and workmen thoroughly trained in the science of electricity, as 
well as in the mechanical processes employed in the manufacture of 
electrical machinery. The classes are, therefore, designed to give to the 
apprentices who are not graduates of the technical schools acquaintance 
with the mathematics upon which their work depends, and with the science 
of electricity. 

The instructors in the School are the experts in the employ of the 
company, a number of whom have had experience as teachers before 
entering commercial work. 



N. O. NELSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 

NOTE. 

Leclair, 111. 

Mr. N. O. Nelson, owner of the Nelson Manufacturing Company, has 
recently opened a school for his apprentices where they may receive in- 
struction in academic, agricultural, and technical subjects. 

The object of the School is more largely humanitarian than industrial, 
and the work is designed to provide for the wholesome recreation and the 
general development of boys at work m the factory, rather than for the 
development among them of special skill. 

The School is conducted during the day,^ and a part of the apprentices' 
working hours must be devoted to educational work. 



54 

THE PHILADELPHIA COMMERCIAL MUSEUMS. 

NOTE. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Philadelphia Commercial Museums are interesting from the point 
of view of industrial education, because they exhibit the commercial 
products of almost every manufacturing nation in the world, showing the 
evolution of these products, and how raw material may be used for a large 
variety of commercial purposes. 

On the 1st of June of this year the Museums were installed in several 
of the large buildings which were erected at the time of the National 
Export Exposition, in 1876, for exhibition purposes. Perhaps nowhere in 
the world is there so large and interesting an exhibit of commercial 
products, and any industrial school will do well to provide itself with 
similar collections, though on a smaller scale, to supplement their trade 
instruction. In this manner the student can be given a wide outlook upon 
the field of manufacturing, and is made to appreciate the bearing of his 
trade upon the commerce of the world. 

Commercial museums have already been installed in a number of the 
Industrial Institutes, as, lor instance, at the Drexel Institute, described 
above. 



THE TRADES SCHOOL OF THE WINONA TECHNICAL 

INSTITUTE. 

NOTE. 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

The Trades School Department of the Winona Technical Institute 
will open for the reception of scholars on Wednesday, September 21, 
1904. The school year will continue for nine months, divided into semes- 
ters. The school and shops will be in session seven hours daily on five 
days of the week and three hours on Saturday, each scholar having ap- 
proximately txiirty hours' shop practice weekly. 

The school is established for the purpose of giving deserving boys 
training in habits of morality and industry and for teaching them me- 
chanical trades. While the technical training will be of the highest 
order, the trustees consider it to be quite as essential to have the pupils 
good men as good mechanics, and especial attention will be given to their 
moral training. The Bible will be the principal text-book in such train- 
ing. The school is non-sectarian, but each pupil immediately after admis- 
sion will be required to designate the religious denomination of his choice, 
and thereafter attend its services regularly at its place of worship. 

No pupils will be received who are under sixteen years of age. Appli- 
cants are required to pass scholastic, moral and physical examinations 
and from those successful in such examinations selection will be made 
of the number the school can accommodate. No one will be accepted 
who is not able-bodied, intelligent, healthy, and possessed of natural 
aptitude and liking for mechanical work. Candidates to be admitted must 
also be of good moral character and sufficiently educated to enter intelli- 
gently upon the school work. 

The requirements for admission include reading, writing, spelling and 
arithmetic (as far as fractions and interest). Certificates from superin- 
tendents of public schools showing the successful pursuit of these branches 
by the candidate will be accepted as meeting the above examination 
requirement. The requirements as to moral character will be satisfied by 



56 

the certificates of three adults (teachers preferred) who are thoroughly 
acquainted with the applicant. The physical examination will in all cases 
be rnade at the school, its purpose being to determine the ability of the 
applicant to meet the physical requirements of the course in the selected 
trade, and also to guard against the admission of any pupils with con- 
tagious or transmissable diseases. 

The trades offered for the year 1904-5 are as follows: Carpentry, 
Bricklaying and Masonry, Plastering, Blacksmithing, House and Sign 
Painting, Ornamental Painting, Plumbing, Steam and Hot-water Fitting, 
and Electrical Work. Each scholar takes but one of the trades named and 
his instruction in mechanical and free-hand drawing bears in a general way 
upon his particular trade. Special night classes in electrical work and 
mechanical drawing will be given during the school year of 1904-5. Ar- 
rangements will also be made for night classes in other trades if the 
demand warrants. In no cases will pupils be permitted to board in places 
other than those approved by the school authorities as furnishing health- 
ful and safe surroundings. Non-resident pupils will be under the control 
of the faculty not only during school hours, but also at all times during 
their connection with the school. 

It is the belief of the trustees that a fundamental part of the training 
in a Trades School is the development of that self-respect upon the part 
of the pupil that can only come through feeling that in his school work 
he is not the recipient of charity, but that in some measure he pays for 
that which he receives. The idea of self-support should be fostered in 
every possible way, and it will be the constant aim of the school to create 
an unwillingness on the part of its pupils to receive that for which they 
make no return. For this reason the tuition in the Trades School is 
placed at $100 for the full year of nine months or $60 for a single 
semester. This tuition includes all tools and materials used in the course 
selected by the pupil. 

A certain number of scholarships have been placed at the disposal of 
the President, which makes it possible to admit students of exceptional 
qualifications who may not be able to meet the tuition requirements. When 
such scholarships are granted, opportunity will be given the recipient to 
reduce the amount received by work done outside of the regular school 
hours. 

The authorities of the school may at any time dismiss a pupil for 
incompetency or bad conduct, or if for any reasons his further continuance 
in the school is deemed undesirable. In such cases there will be no rebate 
of tuition. The school does not undertake reformatory work and it would 
be unwise for students not readily amenable to direction and guidance to 
enter the school. 



THE SPRING GARDEN INSTITUTE. 

NOTE. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Spring Garden Institute of Philadelphia, incorporated 1851, opened 
workshop schools during the year 1891, in which the pupil works eight 
hours a day, as in a shop. The great success attained — the pupils being 
as far advanced at the end of nine months as in a manual training school 
at the end of three years — has led to the continuance of this system of 
instruction. Those who desire simply to learn the use of tools can do so 
in one year, but those who wish thorough mechanical training for which 
a diploma can be granted are required to attend at least three years. 

No trade is taught. In one shop instruction is given in general metal 

k«rc. 



56 

work ; in the other, in general wood work. Pupils are entered as students 
of Mechanical Handiwork, and are assigned to either wood or metal 
working for the first term. At the close of the first term the classes are 
shifted so that at the conclusion of the second term all pupils have re- 
ceived elementary training in both wood and metal working. The pupils 
then make choice, under advice of their teachers, of the class which they 
desire to enter, and thereafter practice wood working or metal working 
as a specialty. This rule is made because it is desirable to have mechanics, 
and especially electricians, familiar with the methods of working both 
wood and metal. But pupils are required at the end of the second term 
to take up a specialty, because of the great benefit to be obtained from 
continuous practice with one kind of tools. 

The day classes are as follows : Free-hand Drawing, Modeling, De- 
signing, Mechanical Drawing, Mechanical Handiwork, and Applied Elec- 
tricity. The night classes are as follows : Mechanical Drawing, Free- 
hand Drawing, Designing, Architectural Drawing, Mechanical Handiwork, 
and Applied Electricity. The tuition in both day and night courses is 
merely nominal. 



FACTORY EDUCATION : A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 

BY HENRY BRUERE. 

The American community has not yet discovered a practicable means of 
equipping sons of workingmen for broad, serviceable lives as workingmen. 
Tn our p.ublic institutions for higher education we have limited ourselves, 
customarily, to training men for the learned vocations, for the professions, 
wherein the possession of a liberal education is not repugnant to the tasks 
to be performed. A possible exception to this rule may lie in the agri- 
cultural college, but institutions of this nature are not primarily intended 
for men who perform the mere drudgery of farming, the agricultural 
laborers. Further than this, farming is peculiarly a public interest, the 
basis of our economic activities, and, therefore, a vocation of greatest 
importance to the community as a whole. However, agricultural educa- 
tion is directed toward the improvement of the agricultural resources of 
America, rather than toward the enrichment of the lives of American 
farmers. It is technical education, aiming at increased productiveness of 
lands, and the maintenance of fertility through the heightening of efficiency 
among farmers. Broadly speaking, colleges of agriculture are likely to 
create a class of captains of agriculture, analogous to the managers of 
our large industries, who by means of an acquaintance with the technique 
of their vocations are enabled to direct the unskilled and uneducated 
laborer in the processes of manufacture or cultivation. 

The point of view from which elementary education has been carried 
on is cultural. The children of society are taught to read and write and 
the elementary facts of life for developmental purposes. While there are 
wide differences in methods, elementary education is generally designed, 
from the child's point of view, not for the cultivation of particular apti- 
tudes in children, or even for their discovery, but, merely, to supply them 
with the barest necessities of competitive life in a modern society. 

Our enlightened communities enforce attendance at school during the 
formative period of a child's life. The child of the working class, at any 
rate, is not free to elect thekind of education he shall receive during these 
formative years, nor can his parents choose for him, except between the 
more or less enlightened instruction in the public grammar schools and 
the usually old-fashioned curricula of the parochial schools. On attaining 
the statutory age the child is theoretically prepared to earn his living, and 



57 

in the majority of cases the struggle for a liveHhood must commence at 
this point. 

With the general and limited lump of information derivable from at- 
tendance in a grammar or parochial school, the boy finds himself sub- 
merged in the detail of a manufacturing plant. He has found a job and 
has, at length, set out in earnest to pay his way in the world. Because he 
is a boy and limited in strength he receives lower wages than the man 
next him who is called upon to exercise no greater intelligence or initiative 
than he and is, perhaps, actually less intelligent. The work he does is, 
simply, work, non-aeveloping at best and, at worst, stultifying. It is 
repetitious piece-work in which he performs processes with the aid of 
semi-automatic machinery, unrelated in his experience to any organized 
activity, except in so far as he understands that others are doing similar 
work in order that a certain salable product may be created. Even when 
the process which he supervises results in a finished article — that is, when 
the process is final in a series of processes, as, for instance, the balling of 
twine or sealing of a package — the repetition deadens the imaginative 
interest. The child is now no longer subjected to influences giving him 
an opportunity for mental growth, nor, on the other hand, is he able to 
cultivate special skill which will enable him to command a stronger 
economic position, and with it increased opportunity for growth as a result 
of the nature of the work he is enabled to perform. 

Here the limit of society's concern seems to have been reached. The 
child has been provided at the public expense with the traditionally neces- 
sary equipment for competition on the one hand, and the supposed anti- 
toxin to bad citrzenshin on the other. For the industrial class the ques- 
tion ceases at this point to be one of good-citizenship and becomes one of 
economic fitness. But the apparent interests of the modern manufacturing 
establishment seem opposed to the cultivation of this fitness beyond the 
degree already secured by society, namely, a practice of the simple virtues 
of obedience, honesty, regularity and reasonable precision, inculcated 
by the grade schools. A steadfast adherence to these principles of conduct 
is made the condition of job-tenure, and soon results in the monotonous 
subordination of the spirit of the child to the controlling forces of the 
factory. 

So long as the job is held and wages sufficient for the maintenance of 
life are paid, the range of the factory worker's initiative is limited to his 
activities out of working hours. With the child, these are further con- 
trolled, to a very large extent, by his parents, and, in some instances, by 
the church. This parental and religious control is again directed toward 
the cultivation of passivity, toward submissive obedience, honesty and 
fear of punishment. 

The problem which arises here is in regard to the inquiry : Can society 
afford to look on the probable waste of capacity in this manner indiffer- 
ently? On the other hand, may a community permit the restriction of 
individual growth without forfeiting its self-respect? The problem, while 
it is a single one, involves especially these two questions : a question of 
commercial expediency, and, secondly, a question of moral development. 
As a commercial organiaztion, as an economic body, are we so abundantly 
supplied with capable workers that we can afiford to be profligate with 
the material out of which capable workers are to be made? Is there no 
folly in permitting a boy with latent capacity for skilled or executive work 
to deaden his energies and quiet his ambition in the performance of mean- 
ingless work? A very reverend and delightful gentleman writing recently 
in the Atlantic in a burst of enthusiasm over the increased dignity of 
labor in America, ventures the remark that "the great factory not only 
educates the man who runs it, but every boy who tends a lever or minds 
an engine." This, of course, is another instance of the old fallacy which 
gave rise to the conception of the "noble savage." Nature to be ennobling 
must be understood, and in a manner comprehended: just so with 



' 58 



"wheels and bands," which do not educate unless they are understood and 
their activities comprehended. 

A great deal of the work done in our factories by boys is done without 
mental concentration on the work in hand. It is done automatically, 
mechanically, the muscular forces of the tender co-operating with the 
device of the machine. A foreman of a large shop told me the other day 
that some of the men in his department had operated the machines at 
which they were then working for ten or more years, and that no single 
man who had become accustomed to his job was willing to be transferred. 
The work done was largely supervisory; that is, machine tending, requir- 
ing no original thought on the part of the operator. The obligation to 
readjust his mental machii^ery incurred by transference to a new job, 
counteracted the average man's desire for variety of experience. It 
scarcely requires argument to convince one of the fact that machine 
tending of this nature is not an educative process ; it neither gives satisfac- 
tion to the tender by affording him an opportunity for self-expression, 
nor does it develop in him marketable skill. Intellectually, in so far as his 
work is concerned, the boy at eighteen is in no way the superior to the 
boy at fourteen. He may be more regular in his activity — ^that is, he may 
work more days in the year — he may turn out a greater number of pieces 
a day, on the average — but he is capable of no greater or new self-expres- 
sion in his work, nor of work of a higher order because of his activity. 

One cannot help feeling that a way must be found, either of making all 
work developmental, or of relegating to the least fit (as is, theoretically, 
the method now employed) through a process of selection, all meaningless 
work, then striving to limit the necessary quantity of that class of work 
to the lowest possible amount, both for any institution or any individual. 
Already automatic machines are supplanting the machine-tender and a 
large part of the machine work now done by unskilled workmen might 
very readily be done by automatic machines. 

On the other hand, the power of organized labor seeks to secure for 
work of this class higher compensation, with a shorter working day, 
leaving a part of the day open for leisure. This leisure, however, is gen- 
erally not cultivated when secured. The working class has not discovered 
the need of a legitimate avocation, and, usually, does not possess an incli- 
nation towards the constructive or even wholesome use of non-working 
hours. 

But our problem is an immediate and pressing one. We are not pre- 
pared to substitute automatic machines universally in machine tending 
operations, nor is the commercial world ready to shorten the work 
day sufficiently to afford an opportunity for the man engaged in non- 
expressive work to restore his energies and quicken his faculties in 
educational activities or by self-expression in an avocation. The solution, 
if, indeed, but a temporary one, must be found within the factory. It is 
clear that ordinary machine tending unfits a man for a higher class of 
work. A man engaged in machine tending for a period of ten years has 
not the power of readjustment necessary for learning a new means of 
livelihood. At any given moment, therefore, we must be resigned to a 
large waste of human capacity, and be satisfied with seeking to make the 
adult operatives' lives richer along the lines of their personal interests. 
The educational opportunity lies among the boys, and the nature of the 
case makes it impossible for the community to properly undertake the edu- 
cation of the factory boy. The community is not prepared to open oppor- 
tunities for his advancement, and this advancement along the lines of his 
aptitudes must be an important part of any scheme of education which 
seeks to raise the mental capacity, or to cultivate the powers of a factory 
boy. We cannot stimulate his interest and then give it no means of 
expression. His days are given up to dull work, and, if he is to grow, 
he must grow out of that work. The problem, then, appears to be one 
of technical education. Manufacturers are coming to feel their responsi- 



59 

bility in this matter, and to appreciate the advantage of educating the 
men upon whom they must in a large measure depend for commercial 
success. Principles of good organization prompt a manufacturer to develop 
his own men to answer his ov/n needs. "I hope to see the day," the super- 
intendent of a large Chicago factory said recently, "when we shall con- 
sider it a disgrace to go to New England for managers of our establish- 
ments." 

The manufacturer is under ethical compulsion to encourage the devel- 
opment of the boys whose work helps his profits. The advanced states 
have interfered to the extent of prohibiting the employment of children 
under fourteen in any case, and, under certain conditions, of children 
under sixteen. The average lad at sixteen has not had time to discover 
his aptitudes, to train them, and to acquire, in addition, an elementary 
education. It is a mere extension of the principle of the child labor laws 
to require that no boy or girl be permitted to devote all of his energies to 
work which does not cultivate capacity in him. We are slow to weigh the 
interests of the generation of to-morrow against those of the generation 
in power. The fault is universal, among bodies of organized labor as well 
as among capitalists. Here and there, however, a corporation has found it 
wise to cultivate capacity, usually along the lines of the commercial inter- 
est of the particular corporation. An interesting example is the West- 
inghouse Manufacturing Company, which has opened a school in East 
Pittsburg for apprentices in its electrical plant, where instruction along 
electrical lines especially is given after working hours. A smaller com- 
pany is planning to make attendance at a special school compulsory 
upon boys employed in its shops during a part of every working day. 
These manufacturers are realizing what the community will eventually 
realize, that they cannot afford to increase indefinitely the ranks of un- 
skilled laborers. For America immigration supplies an overplus of 
inefficiency. American-born children must be taught to do things, must 
be encouraged in self-expression, even if it costs in wages. It does not 
seem that we shall need to fear a dearth of men who are unfit for higher 
work than machine tending. Ethically, the provision of educational op- 
portunities for factory workers is the concern of the community, which 
owes it to every child in the community that he be given an opportunity 
for self-expression in his work. Economically, it is vicariously the con- 
cern of manufacturers, to whom skill is precious, and intelligent co- 
operation on the part of employes the sine qua non of successful under- 
takings. 



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